It's Nothing
by NerdGirl112
Summary: Robin is injured during a mission, but he keeps it a secret from the Team and Batman. The injury wasn't *too* bad, what's the worst that could happen? At least that's what the Boy Wonder tells himself. Lots of Robin-whumpage!
1. Chapter 1

**This was an extremely random story that I wanted to write. I've been thinking about it for a while, and I finally wrote it! :D Yay..**

Summary: Robin is injured during a mission, but he keeps it a secret from the team and Batman. The injury wasn't *too* bad, what's the worst that could happen?

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><p>Robin knew dang well that secrets could be hard to keep, especially for heroes. And also because the people he did his 'hero-work' with were his best friends. The Boy Wonder thought it was difficult keeping his identity hidden- but his friends understood that. Now <em>injuries<em> on the other hand? If you had a paper cut on your finger, someone would notice. That's just how it worked. And because Robin was considered the 'little brother' on the team, it was even harder to not be noticed. The Boy Wonder carefully (but not too carefully) sat down on the couch as his side ached in protest. Of course this had to happen to him. One moment everything was fine, and the next moment things spun out of control.

*Flashback*

A raven-haired boy was running through Gotham City, the stars shining in the night sky above him. Next to him were his teammates, his friends. The only thought running through Robin's head was, 'Complete the mission, then go back to the Cave.' It had surprisingly been a very slow week. Batman had had no missions for the young heroes except for an occasional patrol every once in a while. The mission they were on then wasn't an exception- there had been a robbery at a local jewelry store in Gotham City, usually something the Dynamic Duo would deal with. Bats had finally agreed to let them go after Wally had begged the Dark Knight to the point of giving in, thinking it was a good idea to let the teens get out. Robin had been astonished that Batman complied.

The young heroes were hidden across the street from the store, watching six men (from what Robin could count). Each one had a huge, hunting knife that was probably as long as Robin's arm. Definitely NOT the kind of knife that Alfred would use to make dinner.

'Whoa.' the Boy Wonder thought. 'Haven't seen weapons like that in a while.' Usually robbers had guns, sometimes even bombs- but knives were rare.

Robin and Miss Martian went first. Lately the 'strategic' thing to do was to have the martian and the bird go first, their abilities for staying hidden a huge advantage. The Martian easily distracted the men by telepathically picking up a rock and throwing it at the head of one of the robbers. Robin snuck around the building and looked up at the roof. The store itself wasn't too tall, maybe fourteen or so feet high. Robin found some crates stacked up against the back wall and used them to climb the building. He pulled out a few birdarangs when he got to the edge of the store. The six men were still distracted, their attention focused only on the strange rock moving around on its own. Robin threw the birdarangs at the two men nearest to him, and the fight began. One of the men yelled, "Hey, isn't that Batman's sidekick?"

"Partner, actually, "Robin muttered to himself. At the moment the others all attacked, each hero finding a man to fight with while still watching out for each other. Robin noticed a man stuffing as many valuable items as he could in his pockets. The robber looked up to find the Boy Wonder staring at him with a skeptical look, then took off running. Robin reacted quickly. He had dealt with so many robbers that he knew the guy was going to attempt and make a run for it. Of course, running never got you far from the Dynamic Duo. Robin kept in mind that Batman wasn't with him, and if he needed help, he'd have to call for his team. Although the young heroes had bonded a great deal since their first actual 'mission', Robin was still not 100% used to working with a team other than him and Bats. Miss M had linked them all up beforehand, but as Robin ran after the man, his friend's voices were becoming faint.

After just two minutes of being followed, the man was quickly running out of breath while Robin was just getting warmed up.

'Too easy!' He thought happily as he silently thanked his foster father for all of his training. The robber dropped all of the items he had gathered into his hands, and bent over, trying to catch his breath. Robin just watched, amused, for a moment then charged at the man. It seemed simple- the guy's eyes went wide with shock as the young boy lunged at him, and Robin allowed a small smile to creep onto his face. But suddenly- faster than Robin ever imagined someone as out of shape as this man could move- the robber pulled out one of the wicked knives the others had been carrying. Not even the Boy Wonder's expert skills and agility could stop him from running straight into the enemy. All he could do was twist his body at the last second, but he grimaced in pain when he felt the man's knife cut into his side. Instead, a hiss of pain escaped his lips. Robin allowed himself to look down at the wound. Unfortunately, it wasn't just a little scratch like he would 'normally' get when he went on missions similar to this with Batman. The cut was a little bit deeper than a graze, and in Robin's mind, not a big deal. It was bleeding quite a bit but it didn't look like he would need stitches. The Boy Wonder just ignored the ache and let his attention fall back on the man. He threw two birdarangs at the bulky robber, trying his best to ignore the sharp, sudden, pain that shot up his side. The birdarangs hit their target. One knocked the knife out of the man's hand, and while he was distracted from losing his weapon, the other birdarang flew back around and hit him in the back of the head. The man was knocked out cold. Just as Robin was about to celebrate his 'small' victory, he heard the sirens of police cars and decided it best to leave. His friends were probably worrying about him anyways. The Boy Wonder glanced back one last time at the unconscious man, and was taken aback for a second when he noticed a glint of liquid on the robber's knife. Robin just shrugged and ran in the direction of his friends, assuming that the liquid on the knife was just his own blood from when the man had gotten a lucky swipe at him.

But boy was he wrong.

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><p>When Robin returned to his friends, he was pretty tired. He just shook his exhaustion off, thinking it was because of the team's intense training before the mission. Robin checked his 'scratch' one more time. It didn't *look* that bad. It wasn't anything he couldn't handle. Robin knew that if his teammates found out, they would just worry about him, like they usually did when he was injured. Robin found it frustrating sometimes; being treated like he was a little kid. He *definitely* knew that his friends would over-react if he mentioned he had been grazed with a knife, and Robin honestly didn't want them to ask about it. So the Boy Wonder decided not saying anything would be the best decision. He noticed Aqualad look over at him with a small smile. When the Atlantean started walking over, Robin shifted himself into a position where his injury couldn't be seen.<p>

"Robin. I am glad you are alright. I assume you took care of the man that you were chasing?"

Robin gave his best smile. "Of course, Aqualad! It was no problem at all." The Boy Wonder sighed in relief when Aqualad turned back towards Miss Martian, to tell her that it was safe to leave in the bio-ship. The team headed back towards the ship. Robin consciously wrapped his arm around his waist to hide the cut and walked up the ramp.

*End of Flashback*

Now Robin's side was all bandaged up under his civvies clothes, not the least bit noticeable. The Boy Wonder silently thanked Alfred for all of his teachings on how to take care of wounds as he watched TV with Wally, Kaldur, and Conner. Megan and Artemis were in the kitchen cooking and chatting about boys and school (the usual).

Conner turned towards Robin, a confused expression on his face.

"So, do you and Batman fight criminals like the robbers we faced on a regular basis?"

The Boy Wonder was slightly shocked at first that Conner asked the question, but he shrugged it off and smirked.

"Yup, pretty much. Robberies are the 'usual' thing," he said, using his hands to make fake quotation marks. "But many times we'll face the really bad villains like Joker and Clayface."

Conner nodded his head up and down slowly. "That sounds dangerous," he said. "Do you get hurt a lot?"

Robin laughed. Getting hurt happened at *least* every-other time he went on patrol. "Yeah, but getting hurt is part of the gig. If Batman would've pulled me out of the first time I got hurt, I definitely wouldn't be here right now."

"So when you do get hurt, who takes care of it?" Robin's eyes widened a bit under his dark sunglasses. He was getting in deep water. Alfred and Bruce were obviously the ones to take care of any injuries, but he couldn't tell his teammates that. And if he said Batman took care of his injuries, Conner would most likely ask who took care of Batman's. (Or in this case, Robin had tried to take care of his own injuries.) The raven-haired boy was about to come up with some random answer when Megan walked in.

"Artemis and I made brownies!" She exclaimed, a wide smile on her face. 'Phew!' Robin thought. 'Saved by the martian.'

Robin jumped up as fast as he could, gritting his teeth together when his side burned. He felt bad for ignoring Conner, but he needed to get away before he asked any more questions.

The teens walked into the kitchen, the scent of warm, delicious, cinnamon-sugar cookies in the air.

"It smells great in here!" Wally said, a huge smile on his face. "Let's eat!"

Artemis walked over and hit the Speedster upside his head; Robin had to stifle a laugh as she did.

"Um, a thanks would be appropriate Wally," the archer said.

Wally, busy filling his mouth with the delicious snacks, said a quick 'thanks'. Then he turned towards Robin.

"Well *best friend*, thanks for not laughing at me," he said sarcastically. Robin just smirked back. Unexpectedly, the speedster ran over before Robin could protect himself and tackled him to the ground. Robin was unsure of what to do. He could either yell out because of the horrible pain that shot up his side, or bite his tongue to not blow his secret. Instead, Robin chose to do something in between the two options. He let out a pained yelp, but not loud enough to worry anybody, then shut his mouth so he wouldn't cry out further. Wally started laughing along with everybody else, and Robin did his best to laugh along with them. The red head got up first.

"Now you know what'll happen if you laugh at me," he said, smiling.

Robin smiled back, still sitting on the floor of the kitchen. He was extremely grateful for his sunglasses, because at the moment his eyes were showing all his pain. Unfortunately for the Boy Wonder, Wally had hit directly into the cut. The pain, even though almost a few minutes had passed, was barely subsiding. Robin was truly starting to worry. At first, the cut seemed unimportant and not serious. But as the night had gone on it was getting progressively worse, even though the cut was just a few inches long and not that deep. Robin had done everything Alfred would've done to treat the wound: He cleaned it, cleaned it again, put disinfectant on it, and then wrapped it up tightly. Yet the pain was getting worse rather than staying the same or getting better. Robin was pulled out of his trance when Wally asked, "Yo Rob, are you ever going to get up?" Robin could tell his best friend was joking, but to be safe, he slowly got up and grabbed a cookie off the counter.

"These are great. Thanks for making them," he told Artemis and Miss Martian. The two girls explained how they had found the recipe and how they made them, and Robin listened contently.

* * *

><p>Around midnight the teens decided to go to bed. Robin had called Batman to see if he could stay the night, and his foster father had happily (what a shock) agreed. After saying their goodnights, the heroes headed off towards their beds. Robin walked into his 'room' and wasn't surprised to see that everything was the same as the last time he spent the night at the cave. All that was in the room was a desk, a few extra Robin uniforms and some regular clothes, a bed, and a dresser. Robin didn't stay often so he found it pointless to decorate the place. The Boy Wonder set his laptop down on the desk, then sat down on his bed. Making sure that nobody was coming, he took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes. Robin felt exhausted.<p>

'I didn't even do much today,' he thought to himself. 'I trained, went on an extremely short mission, and then chilled the rest of the night. Why am I so tired?'

The Boy Wonder changed into some gym clothes (since he didn't really have any pajamas), wincing when his side started hurting. Robin carefully climbed on his bed. At first, he lay on his back, but then his side started throbbing. Robin attempted to lie on his left side in hopes that it would ease the pain. The cut burnt a little less than before, but the pain was still there. Robin sighed. Maybe this was a lot worse than he had imagined. Maybe he needed to tell his friends or Batman... But he might look like a baby whining over a scrape, so he pushed the idea to the back of his mind and tried to sleep.

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><p>To say that Robin felt a little sick when he woke up the next morning was an understatement. His eyes and body felt hot, yet he was shivering under all of the blankets. Robin's entire body ached, and every time he moved it was worse. But the most horrible pain was the pain in his side. Robin sat up and put his feet over the bed.<p>

'Thanks goodness I'm not dizzy or nauseas...' he thought to himself.

The Boy Wonder took off his shirt and carefully unwrapped the bandage from his side. Robin was shocked at what had happened to the cut since the last time he'd seen it. Before it looked exactly like what it was- a cut. But now it was bright red, a purple-ish bruise making a circle around it. In a nutshell, it looked like it was on the verge of becoming infected. Robin decided that the best thing to do was wash it again. He put his shirt back on, grabbed some clean clothes, and headed for the showers.

Robin felt slightly better after he took a shower and washed and redressed the wound. It didn't hurt as much, but he still felt incredibly sick.

'I'm so not feeling the aster...' Robin thought when he remembered the team had hand-to-hand combat training with Black Canary. Under normal circumstances he would be excited because martial arts was his strong point, but not today. Just lifting his arms above his head was difficult. And if he got punched in the side? Robin was pretty sure his secret would be out if *that* happened.

He slowly made his way towards the kitchen when he heard his friends' voices. Robin walked in to find breakfast had been made (once again thanks to Megan and Artemis). Kaldur and Megan said a happy 'good morning' as Robin got some food.

"How was your night Robin?" the Martian asked cheerfully. For a moment Robin felt like answering, 'I was in horrible pain last night and this morning I feel even worse, but I'm just peachy!', but instead answered, "I'm great, how bout' you?"

Megan smiled. "I'm great as well. I hope you enjoy your breakfast."

Robin smiled back, taking a huge bite of bacon and gave Megan a thumbs up.

After breakfast had been cleaned up Kaldur told the team it was almost time for training. Robin tried his best to look excited as he made his way over to the training area. To his dismay, Wally noticed the slight frown on his face.

"Hey Rob, you okay?"

Robin jerked his head up, surprised by the question.

"Yeah, I'm good. Do I look un-okay?" he said back, a smirk on his face.

The speedster nodded slowly. "I don't know. Do you feel sick or anything?"

Robin faked laughing. "Ha, you think I'm sick? I would've skipped training if I were sick." Luckily the red head bought Robin's acting, and ran off towards the training floor where Black Canary was waiting.

Robin sighed to himself. This was going to be interesting.

**To be perfectly honest, I've actually been writing this on my phone. I had NO idea it would end up being 2,930 words long! I guess I should write my stories on my phone much more often. ;) Anyhoo, this will probably just be a two-shot or something; it depends. Like the story? Please review! Thanks for reading. :) **


	2. Chapter 2

**NOTICE: Yeah, so I changed my name! Instead of StarWarsGirl, it's now NerdGirl. Just thought I'd give you all a head's up. :)**

**Eek! Sorry about the wait. There was my b-day, Christmas, Christmas shopping, etc..**

**So after I got all the feedback I was NOT expecting to get (Thank you very much, by the way!), I've decided this will no longer be a two-shot. I was inspired by all of your awesome reviews, and now I have tons of ideas! :) Anyhoo, thanks again for reading! :D *squeals in pure joy***

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><p>Robin, dreading the next two hours of his life, walked slowly over to the training floor. Wally was literally running circles around everyone, excited to fight. Robin could only stare at the Speedster and wish he could do the same. Black Canary had everyone line up next to each other.<p>

"Good morning. I hope you all got a good night's sleep because today will be hand-to-hand combat training only."

Robin resisted the urge to groan. He got what- two? Three? -Hours of sleep last night, and had been working off of energy he didn't really have since he got up that morning. 'I feel like telling them _just_ to get out of training..' he thought to himself. _'But it's too late. If I tell anyone, they'll all be furious with me! Especially Batman...'_ Robin had been in such deep thought that he hadn't realized his name being called.

"Robin?" The Boy Wonder looked up at Black Canary.

"Sorry, I was zoned-out for a minute."

Black Canary just smiled sweetly. "That's alright. You'll be facing Wally for the first practice."

Robin mentally face-palmed himself. Of course it had to be Wally. His best friend was extremely reckless, and every time they fought each other in training, they'd battle it out until they were both lying on the ground, out of breath and sweating like mad.

Robin took a deep breath and walked onto the floor, Wally waiting for him.

"Let's do this," Wally smirked as he stood in a battle stance.

Robin just shook his head and sighed. 'I might still have a chance of winning,' he thought to himself.

Black Canary nodded, and the fight began.

Wally made the first move, coming at Robin head on. Thanks to the fact that the Speedster wasn't allowed to use his super-speed, Robin easily dodged Wally's first attempted punch to the face. Instead, he grabbed Wally's arm and used the momentum to throw him off to the side. Robin immediately regretted the move when his right side flared up in pain yet again. The Boy Wonder didn't even have time to wince before Wally was up and in a fighting stance.

"Good move," the red head smirked.

Robin was the one to attack first this time, faking a punch so that he could swing his leg underneath Wally's and knock him off his feet.

The Boy Wonder swung his leg at the Speedster's, but unfortunately Wally had seen it coming. Robin had a moment of shock when the red head dodged his leg and threw a punch towards Robin's stomach.

It all happened in slow motion. Getting hit in the stomach didn't seem very appealing, so Robin did something unexpected. He turned away from Wally, taking the full force of the punch on his lower back. It still hurt incredibly, but he could handle it. Robin saw his friend's look of confusion but carried on. He blocked another punch and in return hit Wally in the gut (but not too hard). This time, the Speedster got a lucky shot- he recovered from being hit in the stomach faster than Robin had expected, and struck him directly in the side. The Boy Wonder couldn't help himself when he yelped in pain, his side beginning to throb even worse than before training. He held his side while trying to ignore his friends and Black Canary's worried expressions.

Wally ran over to Robin. "Man, I'm so sorry! I didn't know I hit you that hard..."

Robin hid his pain and shrugged. "It's alright. I just have a little bruise there, that's probably why it hurt a little more than it should have."

Black Canary walked over to the two boys.

"Robin, are you sure you're okay?" She asked.

The Boy Wonder nodded, putting on the best smile he could.

"I'm fine. I just need a quick breather."

He breathed a sigh of relief when Black Canary smiled at him and nodded, then turned to tell Conner and Kaldur it was their turn to fight. While everyone was busy watching, Robin did his 'ninja-thing' and snuck stealthily out of the room.

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><p>Wally watched as Kaldur and Conner went at each other, throwing punches harder than any other of the team members. He turned towards where he thought Robin was standing.<p>

"Hey Rob, it's a good thing we don't have to go up against *them*," he said, smirking.

When he heard no reply he turned around and found that a raven-haired boy wasn't standing next to him. In fact, he wasn't even in the room. Robin was gone.

Wally turned towards Artemis. "Hey, Arty- do you know where Rob went?"

The archer shook her head. "He was standing right next to you a minute ago."

The Speedster sighed. "He did that stupid ninja-disappearing-act thing again."

Artemis stared at the ground. "Do you think something's wrong with him? He's acting... Weird."

Wally honestly didn't know. It wasn't like him to just leave during training, but he could've left for any reason. Maybe Batman had called? There were so many reasons. He was afraid that if he asked, Robin might think he was just being weird or something. Wally decided it was best to let it go.

Kaldur and Conner were finished dueling and walked over to the others.

"Where is Robin?" Kaldur asked almost immediately.

"He left. I don't know when, and I definitely didn't see him leave."

Megan said what Wally was thinking. "Is he okay?"

The Speedster looked around the room, making sure no one (a.k.a. Robin) wasn't watching.

"I honestly don't know. He's been acting weird," he said. He decided that he couldn't let the problem go. Ever since Robin had acted strange when he had jokingly wrestled him the night before, something inside him had been nagging at him to ask Robin if he was alright.

"When we were fighting, he didn't have his usual happy-fighting-stance. When I punched him, he acted like it really hurt. And I swear I didn't hit him that hard."

Conner, who had a confused face, said, "Maybe he was just being dramatic."

Wally shook his head. "But that's not like Rob. He rocks at hand-to-hand combat, he wouldn't look weak on purpose."

The Team stood in silence, none of them sure of what to say. Black Canary walked over, breaking the silence.

"Are you alright?" She asked, her motherly instincts taking over.

Kaldur was going to respond, but Wally interrupted.

"Everything's fine! We're _just_ fine." He said, maybe a bit too fast.

Black Canary just raised her eyebrow. "Well, if you need me, I'll be available," she said, walking away.

_'Phew...' _Wally thought to himself. He turned to the team.

"I'll go find Rob."

* * *

><p>Sneaking away had been a piece of cake. The Boy Wonder went straight into the bathroom in his room to check on the injury. He was disappointed to find that it had started bleeding again.<p>

_'Darn!'_ He thought. _'Why are injuries so hard to hide?'_

After redressing the wound, Robin lay on his bed and stared up at the ceiling. He was pretty sure the team was suspicious after training. The Boy Wonder hated feeling weak. Unfortunately, that was all he was feeling lately. Weak. It was just a cut for crying out loud! But no, it had to feel much worse than that, and the last thing he needed was his team- or the entire Justice League- thinking that he couldn't handle injuries despite his experience.

Robin, feeling extremely exhausted yet again, started drifting off to sleep. He was almost completely out but jumped when he heard a knock on his door.

"Rob? You in there?"

It was Wally. Of course his best friend had come to find him.

"Yeah, I'm here. Hold on," he said, walking over to the door and opening it for the Speedster. "So... What's up?" Robin asked casually.

Wally sat down on his bed. "Oh, I just noticed you left and wanted to know if you were alright."

Robin hesitated for just a moment. Should he tell Wally? He knew the Speedster was the most likely not to blow up at him, but he decided he couldn't risk it.

"Oh yeah, I'm okay," he smiled and laughed, "Why do you keep asking me that?"

Robin watched Wally's eyes dart around the room. "Oh, no reason." The Speedster said.

Robin just laughed at his best friend's horrible acting. Suddenly the Zeta Beam went off, announcing a certain Dark Knight's arrival.

Robin and Wally glanced at each other. "We should probably go see what that's about," the Boy Wonder said. The Speedster nodded and they made their way towards the training floor.

Batman obviously had a mission for the team. Just by the way he was standing all epic-ly in the middle of the room, Robin could tell.

He suppressed a groan. _'First training, and now a mission. I don't know if this 'secret' can be kept much longer...'_

"I have a mission for you, if you're willing to take it," The Dark Knight said.

Kaldur nodded. "Of course we would be willing."

Batman went on, explaining what they had to accomplish. "In the last twenty-four hours Riddler has broken out of Arkum Asylum. We believe he is located somewhere in Gotham." Batman turned towards Robin. "Robin will be able to navigate through the city easily. If you find Riddler and can't handle him on you own, you need to call the League immediately."

The young heroes nodded and ran towards the bio-ship, but Robin stayed behind. Batman gave Robin a serious (big surprise) face. Making sure none of the other members were around to hear, he said, "Richard. You know how the Riddler is. He can be a serious threat. Don't hesitate to contact me."

Robin nodded. "I will. If we need it, that is." He was about to run off to the Bio-ship, but his foster father stopped him.

"Is everything okay? Black Canary told me training was... Hard on you today."

The Boy Wonder's heart stopped for a minute, but he snapped out of his stupor.

"Yeah. I'm fine, don't worry. I was just tired this morning, that's all."

Batman just raised his eyebrow, but quickly let it go and nodded. Robin ran (despite the pain) towards his friends but he could feel Batman's cold stare watching his back.

_'He's SO going to find out!'_

* * *

><p>The Team dropped down on top of a building in the middle of Gotham City. Robin figured if they were going to be in his town, they might as well travel like he and Batman would- jumpingrunning/grappling across the rooftops. He led them to a location that his mentor had suggested was a possible place for the Riddler to be hiding. It was a classic hiding spot- an old warehouse on a dock of a small lake. The teens quietly snuck inside and hid behind some big wooden boxes. When Robin heard the voice of the familiar villain he signaled to his teammates.

_'That's definitely him,_' he said telepathically. _'You get used to his annoying voice after a while.'_

Robin and Artemis, using their grappling hooks, went up into the rafters of the building to get a better view. They found Riddler just sitting in the middle of the floor, a small box with a purple question mark on it in front of him.

_'What is that?'_ Artemis asked, looking over at the Boy Wonder.

'It could be anything. That's the problem with the Riddler, it's always a mystery. It could be a bomb, a riddle; it could even be a jack in the box.' When Artemis raised an eyebrow Robin added,

_'Yeah... That's happened before to Batman and I.'_

Their attention fell back upon the scene when two men walked up to the villain.

"We have thoroughly scanned the building and found no intruders."

The Riddler raised an eyebrow. "Are you quite sure about that?"

The villain looked up towards the rafters where Robin thought he was hiding safely. "Why don't you come down here Robin?"

Robin's eyes went wide with shock. 'Wait, how'd he know I was up here?' One of the Riddler's goons pulled out a gun and starting shooting at the ceiling, but the Riddler stopped him.

"Now, now, that's not how we treat guests! Robin, just bring your friends down here nicely and we'll talk things out."

Robin sighed. _'We have to go down there,_' he told his friends telepathically. 'If we don't, those guys will start shooting again.'

The others agreed. Aqualad said,_ 'We will go down. But watch for any signs of danger. The Riddler may be unpredictable.'_

The young heroes slowly came down to the floor of the building, all of them watching the villain suspiciously. The Riddler nodded to the two men standing on either side of them, and they each pulled out a weapon that looked like a whip. Robin had never seen anything like them. They looked as though there was electricity running through them.

_'Looks like I'll be avoiding those..'_ he heard Wally say. The two men slashed their weapons at the heroes, and the fight was on. Aqualad and Artemis took on one man while Superboy and Miss Martian took on the other. Robin noticed the Riddler trying to sneak away so he called over to Kid Flash.

"KF! The Riddler's getting away!" The Speedster ran over to him.

Robin heard their leader's voice in his head. _'Go. We will take care of these two. But be careful.'_

The Boy Wonder and Kid Flash nodded and took off towards the villain.

Finding the man wasn't that hard. The Riddler hadn't even made it out of the building before Kid Flash found him, Robin trailing close behind. Riddler leaned over, trying to catch his breath.

"It seems like this may be the end of me..." he said sadly."I'll go back to Arkum Asylum with all of the other bad guys until I escape again."

"Actually," Robin said, "You won't be leaving Arkum again."

The Riddler laughed, and suddenly there was a man dressed in all black standing behind him.

"Robin, Kid Flash- I'd like you to meet my friend. He goes by the name Shadow. He'll be taking care of you while I leave." The villain turned to leave, and Kid Flash shot after him. Unfortunately the Riddler's 'friend' Shadow had a few tricks up his sleeve as well. He stuck his arm out and struck Kid Flash in the face before he could run past him. The Speedster flew back a few feet into some crates, and he didn't get up. Now Shadow's full attention was on Robin. The Boys Wonder got into a fighting stance. On the outside he looked almost as tough as Batman, but on the inside he was panicking. He could already feel the exhaustion creeping up on him, like it had the night before.

_'Darn it! Why did I have to get hurt _now_?'_ The Boy Wonder's side was starting to throb again. He knew he wouldn't be able to last long against this 'Shadow' guy, and hoped his friends would be there soon, because it appeared that Kid Flash wouldn't be of any assistance.

Shadow ran towards Robin with incredible speed. Robin stood so that his left side was facing the man, hoping it would help his injury become less vulnerable. Somehow, Shadow seemed to detect this. Instead of aiming for Robin's left side, he surprised the Boy Wonder and hit him on the right side-exactly on his wound- with his leg. Robin cried out in pain. His side practically exploded in pain, and it began to burn as if he were on fire. Shadow came around again, this time hitting the Boy Wonder in the side with his fist. Robin cried out again, falling to one knee, and grabbed his right side in hopes that it would help ease the pain. Shadow, although Robin couldn't see his face, seemed to smile.

"You are injured already?" He said, most likely smiling. "Well this should be very simple then."

Robin had to get out of there. He noticed Kid Flash was starting to wake up, trying to sit up in the mess of broken crates.

This was the only window of opportunity he would get to escape.

Shadow went to punch Robin directly in the face, but he caught Shadow's fist before it could hit him.

The man was caught slightly off-guard. Robin hit Shadow on his arm with his elbow, hitting a nerve that rendered the man's arm useless. Shadow stared in shock at his flimsy arm.

"How did you..." he began to say, but Robin wasn't listening. The Boy Wonder punched Shadow in the face and then the gut and the man fell to the ground, struggling to get up. Robin felt like passing out because the pain was becoming unbearable, but he knew this was his only chance. He threw some smoke pellets down and ran towards Kid Flash, who thankfully was completely conscious.

"Man... What happened?" The dazed Speedster asked.

"No time to explain," Robin said quickly. "We have to leave before that Shadow guy gets up."

Robin helped Kid Flash get up. The Speedster studied Robin's face with concern.

"Dude, you look like you're going to pass out on me."

In all honesty, it was taking every ounce of strength for Robin _not_ to collapse to the floor unconscious.

Robin watched his best friend's eyes go wide with shock.

"Rob! What the heck happened?"

Robin looked down to where the Speedster was staring. The right side of his suit was even redder, blood beginning to stain it.

Any color that was left on the Boy Wonder drained from his face.

_'Crap,_' he thought. _'I'm so busted!'_

Robin heard Shadow moaning from inside all of the smoke.

"It's nothing," he said quickly. "We need to leave before Shadow wakes up."

_'Robin! Kid Flash! Are you alright?'_ Aqualad's voice called out in their heads.

Kid Flash gave Robin a glare. _'No, we're not-'_

_'We're fine! Well, Riddler did get away, but we'll be there in a sec.'_ Robin interrupted.

Kid Flash (surprisingly) looked at Robin with a cold, hard, stare.

"Robin. You are NOT okay. What did that guy do to you anyway?"

"When I was fighting him, he threw me into a box and I got a little scrape," he lied. "It's not a big deal." Before Kid Flash could respond, Robin ran off towards the rest of the team.

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><p>Robin managed to hide the severity of his injury all the way back to the cave, but not without getting some extremely mean looks from Wally. Once they arrived back to the mountain, he went straight to his room, carefully examining the wound. Robin could hardly stand to look at it. It was terribly bruised (thanks to Shadow) and it had obviously started bleeding again. Robin cleaned it and redressed it for a third time, and went to sit on his bed. The pain was so bad that walking even felt like someone was continuously stabbing him in the side. He couldn't even bend over. Robin heard his friends' voices down the hall.<p>

_'Wally cannot find me,'_ he told himself. _'If he does, I'll be in so much trouble!'_

Robin snuck out of his room and headed towards the garage.

By the time he got there, he could barely stand. He was breathing heavily, and his legs felt numb.

'What in the world is happening?' He thought to himself. Injuries like the small cut he had received never felt _this_ bad. Robin limped over to where his motorcycle stood, and practically slid down the wall onto the floor, his chances of getting up anytime soon very slim.

A sudden feeling of exhaustion came over him, then a wave of dizziness. Robin tried to get up but felt even worse when he did. Using the wall for support, he attempted to make his way back inside the cave. He felt like someone was literally sucking the strength out of him, and he collapsed to the floor. The pain in his side returned with a horrible vengeance, and before he truly had time to register it, darkness pulled him into unconsciousness.

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><p>Wally, who was quite frustrated at a certain Boy Wonder for not telling him about an injury, ran through the hallways of Mount Justice searching for his best friend. He knew something was wrong. To put it oddly, he could *feel* something was wrong with Robin, he just didn't know what it was exactly. Robin had secrets, (like his identity) but that was sort of against his will. However, it wasn't like him to sneak off when the young heroes were spending time with each other. Robin had acted extremely strange on the mission, and Wally knew that the injury that Robin had just shrugged off was a lot worse than he was letting on. He needed to find the Boy Wonder before things got even more out of hand. After checking every room inside the cave (including the med bay and the supply closet), Wally still could not find Robin.<p>

_'Come on Rob! Can't you make things easy just this once and _not_ be so much like Batman?'_

A sudden idea swept over Wally (which never happened often, so the Speedster was pretty proud of himself). He hadn't checked the garage.

_'Of course,'_ he thought._ 'It had to be the one place I _didn't_ look.'_

Wally sped off to the garage, hoping he could figure out what was wrong with the team's hacker.

Unceremoniously throwing open the door, he ran inside the room, eyes scanning the garage. The Speedster found what- or who- he was looking for, but wasn't sure if he should be happy about it.

Robin was laying on the floor next to his motorcycle, out cold. The Speedster ran over, skidding to a stop next to his best friend.

"Rob! Dude, come on!" Wally attempted to gently shake his friend, but the Boy Wonder wasn't waking up. He needed help. He needed to call Batman. Kid Flash carefully picked Robin up, doing his best to avoid touching the injury on his friend's right side, and ran back into the cave.

"You should have told someone about this, Rob," The Speedster said to Robin. "Hold on Buddy."

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><p><strong>I'm extremely sorry for the two week wait! I was really busy.. I hope you all had happy Holidays! I'll update as soon as possible. :) Please review! I got so much feedback last time that I practically exploded in joy. ;) (By the way- this was another chapter written on my phone, but I can't italicize the words, so I went through and edited as much as I could.) Thanks again!<strong>


	3. Chapter 3

Hello my faithful readers! Thanks for all of the reviews! I freaking love you guys! :D Just a little note- I hope I'm doing the whole Robin/Wally friendship right; I'm not one really for slash and I hope it doesn't sound slashy, but rather... Fluffy? Heheh, anyways- sorry for the super-long wait.. I don't know what happened; I think school got ahead of me. -_-

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Robin felt as though he were in murky water. Everything was hazy and unclear, but at the same time it was peaceful. He didn't feel exhausted and he wasn't in pain, instead it felt like he could finally relax. Suddenly the mood shifted, and now the Boy Wonder was standing in the middle of nowhere, a soft breeze going past him.

"Robin."

Robin was taken aback by the sound of his name being called. He looked around, but no one was there. He was standing on a blank surface that seemed to go on forever in every direction.

"Robin!" This time the voice was much more forceful. It made Robin a little nervous.

"Robin! Come on!" Was that... Wally?

"Rob, man, wake up!" Suddenly Robin's dream wasn't so nice. Pain seemed to slowly flow into his body, especially his right side. Instead of the blank nothingness that used to surround him, a huge fire was circling the raven-haired boy. Robin had nowhere to run, and it was getting extremely hot. His body temperature seemed to rise with every passing second, and the pain grew worse.

"Robin!"

The Boy Wonder's baby blue eyes flew open behind his domino mask. He was sweating and shivering at the same time. But the weird thing was that Wally was carrying him bridal-style through the Cave.

Robin, dazed and confused, felt like closing his eyes and going back to sleep was the best idea. Unfortunately for him, the Speedster had a different idea.

"Whoa, Rob. Don't close your eyes, stay with me!"

Robin tried to keep his tired eyes from closing, but he knew it was a battle he'd most likely lose.

The pain was making it worse. His entire body ached horribly, like he had a terrible fever. But the worst of the pain was coming from his side. And then he remembered everything that had happened- the injury that he had tried so hard to keep a secret was definitely not a secret anymore.

His best friend's face abruptly turned from worry to anger.

"Rob! How could you try to keep this hidden? I should've trusted my instincts when I thought you were hurt during the mission."

Robin was going to say he was sorry, but found that his voice wasn't exactly working properly. It ended up sounding like: "M'surry."

Wally (who had not been using his super-speed) ran slightly faster. Robin felt like he might pass out again, but he held on for the sake of his best friend.

Upon entering the med-bay, Kid Flash called for the rest of the Young Justice Team's help. The others were there in an instant.

"What has happened?" Kaldur asked, worried.

Wally (giving a quick glare towards the acrobat) explained how he'd found Robin as he laid the Boy Wonder on one of the beds.

Kaldur almost sighed. "Robin, why did you not confront us about this? It could be very serious."

Robin was going to reply, but pain surged through him and he could only grit his teeth to keep from crying out.

Megan suddenly grasped the side of her head.

"He's in a lot of pain," she said.

Within a few seconds the Hacker was out like a light bulb, no longer capable of staying awake.

The young heroes immediately ran to the Boy Wonder's side, but couldn't wake him.

"We need to call the League. Now," Wally said to Kaldur.

The Atlantean nodded in agreement. Artemis added, "But call Batman first. He probably knows what to do with Robin better than anyone."

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Bruce rarely had any free time when it came to work. There were often times when he couldn't make it home to eat dinner with Richard and Alfred, but he was trying his best. Today was no exception; work had him spending time in countless meetings.

'I need something exciting to happen,' the billionaire thought to himself.

As if on cue, his cellphone rang. Bruce looked at the caller I.D, which read:

"_MJ-A_"

Bruce's eyes widened. Why was Kaldur calling?

Glancing around the empty room, he answered the phone with his deep voice.

"Kaldur. Is there a problem?"

As the Atlantean explained their current 'situation', Bruce was already quickly making his way out of the building.

He was more angry than surprised that Richard had actually hidden his pain from the others. But as Kaldur explained the state his foster son had been in when Wally had found him, he became extremely concerned. Passing out because of a small wound? That didn't sound exactly _right_.

"I'm on my way," he told Kaldur, walking out of Wayne Enterprises.

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Robin wasn't one to show fear, mostly because he had learned not to be scared. But the one thing that still terrified him? Facing an angry Batman? _That_ was terrifying. When the Boy Wonder awoke in the Cave's Medbay, the last thing he wanted to see was an angry Daddy-Bats- who unfortunately was standing right next to the bed. However, Robin did catch the brief flash of concern on his mentor's face.

"Richard. John. Grayson."

_'Oh geez..._' Richard thought, eyes widening. _'He used my entire name_!'

Bruce, his cowl lying on the hospital bed, stared down at his foster son. Dick instinctively reached towards his face to make sure his mask was on, but it wasn't.

Bruce sighed. "No, you didn't give away your identity. I took the mask off after everyone left."

Richard studied Bruce's face. He could usually read the man easily, but this time he wasn't sure if he was mad, or upset, or worried. Maybe all three?

"Bruce, I-" he began, but the billionaire just raised his hand. Dick watched his mentor run a hand through his dark hair as he sat on the side of the bed.

"Dick, why did you keep your injury a secret?" Bruce asked, his eyes full of concern as he looked up at the acrobat's baby blue eyes.

Richard looked down at his hands as he fiddled them nervously.

"I...," he began. "I didn't want anyone to think I was a weak, little, kid. And when I got the cut, it didn't seem that bad, I swear!" the Boy Wonder spilled. "I didn't want to be the one everyone is worried about."

Bruce shook just shook his head, a small smile forming on his face.

"Richard. No one thinks of you like that. Yes, they worry because you are the youngest, but it's practically no different from how you worry about them."

Dick sighed (and winced when he found it hurt to do so), looking up at his foster father.

"I guess so. I just don't want them to treat me too much like a baby."

Bruce put a hand on Dick's shoulder. "They just care about you a lot. _I_ care about you a lot."

Richard just smirked at the comment, but slowly the smile faded. "I know. I'm sorry I didn't say anything."

Bruce raised an eyebrow, looking skeptical as he got off the side of the hospital bed. "I forgive you. However that doesn't mean I'm just going to let this slide. I need to get a better look at that injury."

The Boy Wonder nodded, and tried to relax as Bruce carefully undid the bandages from his side. Dick could honestly say he was taken by surprise at how bad the cut had gotten. To say it in the least disgusting way, it was certainly infected. It was terribly bruised, bloody- Richard thought it was probably the nastiest looking wound he had ever gotten- and being the hero he was meant it was pretty severe.

"Whoa...," he said under his breath. "It has definitely gotten worse than I thought."

Dick slowly looked up at Bruce's face, which made him feel extremely guilty. The billionaire's face was pasty white, and his fingers nervously danced around Dick's wound, too nervous to touch it. He had never seen Bruce look so scared. Sure there were a few times when Richard or Robin would be in trouble and Bruce or Batman would be incredibly worried, but this was just pure _fear_.

"Bruce?" Richard asked when he realized his mentor was almost in a shock-like state. "What's wrong?"

Before the Dark Knight could answer, pain just like the pain that had made him pass out earlier in the garage surged through Dick's body, only this time it felt a thousand times worse. The raven-haired boy yelled out and instinctively tried to grab his side in agony. Bruce grabbed the teen's arm before he did more damage to himself, and used his other arm to put his cowl back on. Richard was shaking and sweating, and the Dark Knight could already feel his body temperature rising. Realizing he couldn't run out with Richard Grayson in his arms, Batman quickly put Dick's mask on over his blue eyes.

"Hold on, son," he whispered to Robin.

Kaldur was caught off guard when he heard and then saw the World's Greatest Detective burst out of Mount Justice's Medbay, sprinting towards the Atlantean.

"We need to get him to the Batcave. Now," he said. "Hold him while I get something." Batman carefully handed Robin over to Kaldur and ran back towards the Medbay. The Leader of the Young Justice team looked down at Robin, who was unconscious and sweating and in obvious pain.

_'I am sorry, Robin. I am sorry if you felt that you could not tell us- tell_ me- _about what happened. Please forgive me,_' Kaldur thought sadly. He almost didn't hear Batman come back.

"Thank you, Kaldur," the Dark Knight said in his deep voice. The Atlantean nodded, watching as Batman injected a clear liquid into the crook of Robin's arm. The Boy Wonder relaxed slightly.

As Kaldur lifted Robin back into Batman's protective arms he asked, "What do you believe is the problem?"

Batman's body seemed to stiffen. "I believe he has been poisoned. A wound like this shouldn't be this bad, or cause so many problems." Batman turned to stare at Kaldur. "Was there... Something different about the men you fought two days ago?"

The Atlantean recalled the events of what was supposedly the simple robbery- but then he remembered the strange and intimidating hunting knives the men had been carrying.

"Yes. There was something different about these men. Although I have not had much experience with robberies on land, I know that it is unusual for average-looking robbers to be carrying weapons such as hunting knives."

At this, Batman's eyes narrowed underneath his cowl. "Hunting knives? What did they look like?"

Kaldur described what he could remember about the weapons, from their blue and gold hilts to how long they had been.

"Those weapons sound familiar," Batman said. "This information will help. Thank you again, Kaldur." And with that, the Dark Knight quickly left through the Zeta Beam.

Bruce ran out of the Zeta Beam and into the Batcave where Alfred was already waiting. At the sight of the young boy, Alfred got straight to work after Bruce laid him down on a bed in the medical room of the Batcave. In between washing and hooking an I.V up to Richard, the butler would glance down at Bruce, who currently had his head in his hands. After various medications and liquids were pulsing through Dick's body and his fever went down the slightest bit, Alfred sat down next to the billionaire he had known his whole life.

"Who did this, Master Bruce?"

The dark-haired man rubbed his eyes and looked towards the bed his foster son was laying on.

"I have an idea of who did this, but I'm not positive. Kaldur explained what the weapons looked like- apparently these men had a rare type of hunting knife," Bruce paused.

Alfred raised an eyebrow. "And?"

"If I can remember correctly, the only person who has weapons that rare is...," Bruce looked up at Alfred with a concerned face. "Ra's Al Ghul."

The Young Justice Team were trying their best to stay calm and collected as they waited to hear from Batman about how Robin was doing. Wally was pacing, which pretty much meant he was speed walking around in circles in front of the TV. Conner was sitting on the couch, watching the Speedster pace. He was worried about the Boy Wonder even though he had been quiet during the entire fiasco of events. None of the team had been injured as badly as this, so it was new to the Clone. Should he be extremely on edge like Wally? Or concerned and calm like Kaldur? He wasn't sure. Megan was currently in the kitchen cooking various desserts. She looked sad, and Conner wanted to comfort her, but he wasn't sure how. Artemis was playing target practice with a pillow from the couch, trying to distract herself. Black Canary had decided to stay the night and watch over the teens, (even though Conner felt like it was pointless to be babysat), and was reading a newspaper, glancing down at her comlink every few minutes. It seemed she was as eager as everyone else for a call.

Finally, Conner decided to break the silence. "Um.. Maybe while we wait we could do something to get Robi-" the clone stopped abruptly when Wally's head shot up, his eyes sad. "Uh, _him_ off of our minds?"

Their leader nodded. "Yes, that is a good idea. We need to try not to worry so much, for the sake of Robin."

The others stopped what they were doing and came to sit on the couch. Megan perked up, "Hey, why don't we go to the beach?"

Black Canary overheard this and looked up from her newspaper. "I think that's a great idea. You guys need to get out."

Kaldur nodded, and everyone went to get ready to try and have some fun.

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**Yeah sorry about the wait… We got new internet and I couldn't update for a while. Thank you for all of the awesome reviews; I wasn't expecting so many! :D I'll update a lot sooner next time.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello my awesome readers! I'm so sorry for another long wait. It's been really hard to update the past two months! Thanks so much for so many reviews! They are quite encouraging and motivational. ;) Just a warning- there will be quite a lot of dialogue in this chapter because Batman and the team will be discussing Robin's current... Predicament. ;)**

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><p>Wally West swam in the cool, blue, ocean to try and distract himself from worrying about Robin while the rest of the team cooked hot dogs under the warm sun. Wally hadn't been there when the Boy Wonder left, but from what Kaldur had said it was pretty scary. But the Speedster was also concerned about why Robin hadn't said anything. Not even to <em>him<em>, his best friend! Did Robin not trust him? Or did he not trust the Team? Or maybe he was scared to tell Batman becau-

"Wally! We're eating, come on!" The Speedster was brought back to reality when he heard Megan calling his name. He got out of the cool water and sped off towards the precious food.

"Hungry, Wally?" The Martian said, a half-smile on her face. Wally could tell she-along with everyone else- was still shaken up.

The Speedster gladly took the food and began stuffing it in his mouth. An awkward silence fell over the heroes as they ate.

Right before Wally thought he was going to explode from no one talking, Conner spoke up.

"We can't just pretend like nothing happened to Robin," he stated clearly. "Maybe instead of sitting here being sad, we could do something about it."

At this, Wally decided to interject. "Well we would, but Batman and Black Canary don't want us to get involved."

Artemis laughed. "Ha! And it's _so_ like us to follow orders. Out of all people, Wally, you'd probably be the one to say we should do something without permission."

The Speedster just stared blankly at the ground. He wanted to help, but he didn't know where to start.

'I'm no detective,' he thought. _That's_ why we need Robin.'

"We are Robin's teammates," Kaldur said. "If we want to help him, it should be our choice."

"Come on, Wally. He's your best friend," the Archer said.

Wally looked up and nodded. He _would_ do something. He just needed somewhere to start.

* * *

><p>*Meanwhile at Wayne Manor*<p>

Dick woke up to nice, warm, sunlight streaming through his bedroom window. It would've been an awesome way to wake up if he didn't feel like crap. Groaning, the Boy Wonder attempted to sit up, but even the slight sound immediately caught his foster father's attention. Bruce ran in, almost scaring Dick out of his bed. He could tell Bruce hadn't gotten much-or any- sleep the previous night because of the dark circles underneath his brown eyes.

"Richard, are you alright? I heard you from outside and I thought maybe-"

Dick smiled and held up his hand. "Don't worry. I was just attempting to sit up, that's all."

Bruce looked down at the covers on his bed. "We have some serious things to talk about, son."

'Oh, great. Now he's going to give me a ten minute lecture on trust or something...' the Boy Wonder thought, trying not to roll his eyes. But when he looked back towards his foster father, his attitude changed immediately. Bruce looked... Worried. Dick had learned that whenever the Dark Knight was troubled, all of Gotham should be too.

"Bruce- what is it?" he asked, trying not to show the fear in his own voice. "You have that _look_ on your face."

The billionaire sighed. "How are you feeling?"

Dick gave Bruce a confused look. _'I feel like I could pass out any second,_' he thought to himself.

"Fine."

"This is serious, Richard. Tell me the truth."

Dick decided there was really no point in lying; he was already in trouble for that anyways. "Fine. I feel terrible. I'm freezing, my entire body aches like I have a fever, my side burns bad enough that I could pass out right now, and I feel like throwing up. I don't know how much more honest I can get."

Bruce sat on the bed. "Well, now it's my turn to be honest," he said. "You _do_ have a fever, your side burns because it's seriously infected, and I'm surprised you haven't passed out by now, and the reason your body aches and why you feel like throwing up is because..." Bruce stopped short, his eyes becoming dark and sad.

"Because?" the Boy Wonder urged him on.

"Because you've been poisoned. And we can't find an antidote."

"So where do we start?" Wally asked his teammates. "Because I have no idea."

Their leader thought in silence for a while. Where did they start? They could start by trying to get information from the robbers themselves, but he felt there was something behind the six men they had faced off a few nights beforehand. Maybe- just _maybe_- if they asked Batman if they could help, he could give them a better place to start.

"Perhaps we should ask Batman if we can help. He knows more about what is going on than any of us," Kaldur said.

"But that's just the thing," Artemis nearly yelled. "How do we know if there _is_ anything going on? Maybe Robin's wound is just infected from not being properly taken care of. Maybe he just needs to sleep it off. We have no other choice but to ask Batman what's going on."

The young heroes glanced at each other. Wally sighed. "I'll contact Batman."

"I was _poisoned_?"

Richard John Grayson had never, not once in his life even as his hero persona, Robin, been poisoned by your average, every day burglar. Since when did people start carrying knives with poison on them anyways? It was too weird to be true.

"Yes," Bruce said back. "That's why this injury has been causing so much trouble. Alfred and I are trying to make our own antidote for it."

Dick just started at him in shock. Now that he really knew how severe the wound really was, he felt extremely guilty for not telling anyone.

And then he remembered- he remembered the liquid that he assumed was his own blood on the knife- must have really been the poison. But that just lead him back to his first question- why would a robber have a poisonous knife?

"So, if you can't find a cure, then... What will happen?" The Boy Wonder (who was currently not feeling very wonderful) already knew the answer to his own question. He would die if there was no cure.

He could tell his foster father saw the question coming. His expression was no longer sad, but determined.

"We _will_ find an antidote, Richard. I promise."

Dick couldn't say anything to that. He trusted Bruce with his life. After all, that was the reason he had gotten a second chance to live life to its fullest.

The raven-haired boy nodded, a small smile on his face. "I know you'll find a way to save me, dad. You always do."

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><p>Wally West was pacing back and forth as he held his cellphone to his ear. He had left the room to talk on the phone so that he wouldn't accidentally give Batman's or Robin's secret I.D's away in front of his teammates. Of course, he had been the brave one and volunteered to call the Dark Knight, but it was also because Robin was his best friend. For him to call was the best decision. The phone rang for a while, and the Speedster was just about to give up when there was a small 'click' and then a man with a British accent answered.<p>

"This is Wayne Manor, how may I help you?"

"Um," Wally said, "This is Wally West. I was wondering if I could talk to-"

Before Wally could finish his sentence, the man that he assumed was the butler Robin talked about all of the time, interrupted. "Oh, yes. I know why you're calling Mr. West, no need to explain yourself. Let me have you talk to...Someone else."

The phone was silent for a moment, and then a deep voice spoke into the phone. "Wally. What is it?"

Wally took a deep breath. "Well, first of all, we wanted to know how Rob is doing. And then..." he paused.

"Yes?" Batman said.

"Um, we wanted to know if we could help in any way."

There was a pause on the other end of the line, and Wally thought maybe the Dark Knight had hung up on him.

But then Batman sighed. "Robin isn't doing so well, to answer your first question and the answer to your second question... I suppose he _is _your teammate. And I believe you may be able to help. I'll be there in a minute."

Wally smiled, knowing he would be able to help, as he ended the call and ran off to tell his friends.

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><p>"Who was that?" a weary Richard asked Bruce as he hung up the phone.<p>

"An extremely concerned friend. Your teammates are awfully worried about you."

Dick hung his head. He couldn't imagine how worried they were- and probably how mad.

"So… What did they say?" he asked, not sure if he wanted to know the answer.

Bruce stood up, looking at Richard. "They're wanted to help me with something, so I'm letting them. Will you be okay if I leave for a little while?'

Dick chuckled. "Ha, I'm chill with that."

His foster father smiled and then left the room, leaving the little bird alone with his thoughts. He was going to ask what they wanted to help with (really, what _was _there to help with?) but he decided against it. Richard slowly leaned back further into the soft pillows. He didn't realize how exhausted he really was. It felt like there were ten pound weights on his eyelids, and his side was throbbing non-stop. He could definitely stand the pain, (compared to some situations he had had before this was nothing) but it was different this time. He was _dying_. Even if it didn't exactly feel like it, his life was slowly slipping away and would progressively get worse unless Batman- or anyone for that matter- found an antidote. The Boy Wonder shivered at the thought of losing his life. Then he practically laughed out loud at how pathetic it was to die by a _cut._

'_I could've at least gone down in an explosion or something...' _he thought to himself. _'Wait! Don't think that way. I won't die. Bruce will save me. My friends will save me. I bet the entire Justice League will try and save me… Right?'_

The raven haired boy tried not to think about it and get some sleep. Although he was grateful for the rest he desperately needed, he couldn't avoid the nightmares that still engulfed him.

_A bright light suddenly appeared in the black abyss Richard had been standing in. And there were two people there- his parents. Running as fast as his legs could carry him, Dick ran towards his parents. He missed them so much, and here they were, standing directly in front of him. The little bird ran into his mother and father's warm embrace, a smile spread across his face. His mother spoke, her voice ringing out as clear as it had been when she was alive._

"_We're so proud of you, son. Everything you have done has made us so happy. But you have an incredibly difficult journey ahead of you. Be strong. Be strong for us and for Bruce. He loves you as much as we do, you know."_

_Richard nodded his head. Of course he knew that. "I'll try my best to stay strong."_

_His father smiled at him. "We're proud of you. Don't forget that. And don't give up."_

_Suddenly, there was an explosion, fire surrounding Dick as he tried to shield himself and found he could no longer move. His parents were gone- they had just vanished as soon as the flames appeared. There was a horrible burning sensation, and then everything went black._

Dick bolted up from his bed, cold sweat running down his face. He let out a hiss of pain when his side stung terribly. The Boy Wonder slowly swung his feet over the side of his bed, and then- forgetting how bad his condition was at the moment- tried to get up to wash his face off. As soon as his feet hit the floor, a wave of dizziness overtook him and he stumbled to the ground. He lay on the ground trying to catch his breath, holding his side in hopes that it would help the throbbing.

'_I probably looked drunker than a pirate just now,' _he thought to himself. Struggling to get on all fours, Dick took deep breaths and attempted to crawl to his bathroom. He found he had no such luck as he stumbled.

'_What the heck did that poison do to me?' _he thought angrily as he stopped yet again to catch his breath.

He glanced up at his clock, which read 8:32 p.m. He _had _been asleep for almost two hours, and Bruce still hadn't returned.

'_Didn't think he'd be gone this long…'_

Richard, using the help of his desk, carefully stood up. But as soon as he was standing straight up, his chest seemed to catch, and he couldn't breathe. Dick tried calling for Alfred, but his voice wasn't working. Falling to the ground (for what seemed like the millionth time that week), he seemed to lose control of his entire body, and his legs felt totally numb. The raven haired boy had time for one last thought before losing consciousness.

'_Where are you, Bruce?'_

**Yeah… Sorry for the incredibly short chapter! The next chapter will have a lot more action in it. And for anyone who doesn't like Robin being hurt, this story isn't for you! Haha, just kidding. ;) Thanks so much for reading! Reviews = MOTIVATION! YEAH! But the next chapter will be a lot more intense. Thanks again! -Nerdgirl112**

**(P.S.- I'm not the only one who noticed they changed Dick G./Robin to Richard G./Robin, right? Like when you put it what characters you want in the story? Ha, just wondering.)**


	5. Chapter 5

**Look at me, updating so "fast"! :D It's only been… A few days. Anyhoo, thanks so much for all of the reviews! 100 is an AWESOME number! And thanks to a special BeatlesFan44 for making the 100****th**** review! Here we go:**

Alfred Pennyworth walked around the enormous mansion, a tray of painkillers in his hands for Dick.

Whenever Master Bruce or Master Richard were injured he'd be right there with the meds.

"Just doing my job, sirs," he'd say as they thanked him.

There was no doubt that Richard would be grateful for his meds that day, being in his current predicament. Alfred had taken care of poison before- it would make everything hurt until someone gave the antidote to you. Sometimes it would make you dizzy, other times it would make your stomach ache; he'd seen most of the different affects. This time, though, was different. There was no antidote to save the day; to make the real pain go away. Nope. Instead, Master Richard would have to suffer and fight until they-Alfred and the entire Justice League- found a cure for the Boy Wonder.

Being the main medical provider for 2 heroes had taught and shown the butler practically everything. Most importantly it taught him to stay calm in even the most gruesome situation. But despite his experience, his heart dropped every time Bruce or Robin- or sometimes both of them- came back broken, and this was no exception.

Knocking on the door softly, Alfred quietly called for Dick.

"Master Richard, I have your medicine."

No response came from inside the room.

_'Perhaps he is asleep_,' thought the butler, and he let himself in.

Any happiness that was left in Alfred vanished as he saw the scene before him. Richard was lying on the floor of his bedroom, gasping like he couldn't get enough air. Without a second thought, Alfred dropped the tray and ran over to him.

"Master Richard!" He yelled, trying to wake the young boy up, but nothing seemed to be working. He managed to pick Dick up and started walking towards the stairs. He needed to get Dick down to the Batcave so that he could give him better medical attention.

Going down the stairs as fast as he could, Alfred finally made it to the hidden elevator. Once inside he pressed a button with the Bat Signal on it and the elevator dropped down toward the Batcave.

* * *

><p>The Dark Knight drove in his Batmobile to Mount Justice. The night was clear and the stars were shining; it would have been a perfect night if a certain son of his wasn't in a life-threatening situation- a situation that he may not have time to solve in time. But he promised himself he wouldn't think that way- he <em>would<em> save Richard, even if it meant sacrificing his own life.

Batman felt the tension in Mount Justice the minute he walked in. The young teens were sitting on the couch, ready for whatever task he was about to assign them with. (Although he wasn't sure himself what he was going to have them do.)

Wally was the first one there, unable to contain his anxious behavior any longer.

"I- is Rob going to be okay?" he asked, concern shown in his eyes.

Batman sighed. "To be perfectly honest and straightforward, I discovered that Robin had been poisoned. Unless we find an antidote-and it has to be soon-" the Dark Knight managed to choke out the last of his sentence without showing _too_ much emotion- "he'll die."

Megan gasped, the shock of how severe the situation was, catching her off-guard. Conner and Kaldur both lowered their eyes, and Wally and Artemis both had determined looks on their faces.

"So does this mean our mission is to find an antidote?" the Speedster asked.

Batman shook his head. "The entire League is searching for an antidote. The problem is that Robin is going to require medical attention from an actual hospital- what I can provide in the Batcave isn't enough. But admitting him to a hospital means taking off our masks. Robin can't be put in a hospital if he and I can't take off our masks. This mission will prove if I can trust you with our secret I. D's."

"So if we accomplish this mission, we are allowed to visit Robin in the hospital. Is that the objective?" Kaldur questioned. Batman nodded.

"But we won't be visiting _Robin_- we'll be visiting someone entirely different," said Megan.

"That's the idea. The reason behind keeping our identities a secret is strictly for safety. However, you are his teammates-"

"And friends," Wally interrupted.

"-Yes, and friends- so hopefully we'll be able to trust you with our names."

The young heroes all nodded. Batman had been very cautious about making this decision, but eventually decided it was for the best. He knew the Team would want to be by Richard's side every moment to ensure he was well, but the only way to give them that opportunity was to let them in on the Dynamic Duo's biggest secrets.

"So, what are we supposed to do?" Connor asked.

* * *

><p>-Gotham City-<p>

Alfred -trying his best to stay composed- laid Richard down on the hospital bed that was in the Batcave's medical room. He then hooked up the oxygen machine, placing the mask over the thirteen year old's mouth.

"I need you to find who did this to Robin. If we can find who might have caused this, we may be able to find a way to stop it."

The Team of young heroes nodded with fierce determination- they wouldn't let their Bird be taken from them.

* * *

><p>The machine beeped frantically as Alfred tried to stabilize his young master's heartbeat.<p>

He needed to call Bruce.

* * *

><p>"The best place for you to start would be the Gotham's city jail. The men who did this should've been locked up there, and it would probably be best if I didn't go. You might be able to receive more information."<p>

Finally stabilizing Richard's heart enough to look away from the machine for a just a moment, Alfred quickly dialed Bruce's number.

"Hold on, Master Richard," he almost begged the teen.

* * *

><p>"Once you find anything- it doesn't matter <em>how<em> important it is- do _not_ pursue it on your own. Contact me first. If this is a real threat, the Justice League will hand-"

A beeping noise went off on Batman's communicator. Pressing the small device to his ear, he said, "Batman here."

Alfred's arms were starting to shake as he administered an i.v. in Dick's arm to help with his burning fever and talked to Bruce through the computer.

"Master Bruce, it's an emergency. You need to come right away. Master Richard must've collapsed while we thought he was sleeping, and he's not breathing well. I have him hooked up to an oxygen machine, but he needs to go to the hospital. _Now_."

* * *

><p>Batman's eyes widened in shock as Alfred explained what had happened. All that the Detective <em>really <em>registered was that Dick wasn't breathing well, and he needed to get there immediately.

"Call an ambulance. I'm on my way. And Alfred," he added just before the butler hung up. "You'll have to put him in regular clothes. He can't go in his uniform."

When Batman turned back towards the Team they all had worried, sad, expressions on their faces.

"What has happened?" Kaldur asked.

Batman was already losing his composure when he answered.

"Robin's not breathing very well. Apparently while I was away he lost consciousness. I have to go."

Despite being known for his fearless, dark, emotionless, ways, everyone could tell that the Dark Knight was scared for his little bird as he rushed out of Mount Justice.

* * *

><p>As soon as the Dark Knight returned to Wayne Manor he changed out of his uniform and into normal attire. Alfred and Richard had already gone to the hospital a few minutes before his arrival, and now Bruce was running towards his car while throwing on his jacket.<p>

Of course this had to happen while he was away. Even in situations where Dick had to stay home because he had a cold and Bruce had to go to work made the billionaire feel guilty. Leaving Richard while he was in a life-threatening situation was like leaving his own child behind; alone where no one would find him. He knew that his intentions were meant to be good when he left- he was, after all, having the Team find the men who did this to his own son. Yet there was still that guilty feeling that lingered in his mind. He shouldn't have left Richard.

Bruce pulled into the hospital parking lot, where a few reporters were already waiting to ask questions.

"Mr. Wayne! Do you know who's behind all of this?"

'No, but I'm trying to find out,' he thought angrily.

"Bruce! Do you think Richard will be saved in time?"

Bruce almost stopped to yell at the reporter. Of course he would be saved in time!

But who was he kidding? He didn't know for sure. The chances of Richard being cured was somewhere around a 10 to 90 ratio if they didn't at *least* get some kind of lead on who was behind the poisoning.

For one of the rare times in Bruce Wayne's life, he honestly didn't know the answer.

The billionaire had always hated hospitals. They reminded him of his parents when they had died, the countless times that he or Richard- or both of them- had to be admitted there because some guy had attempted to kill them or because they both suffered injuries while fighting crime. Whatever the reason, Bruce just didn't like them.

Walking-well, running would be more appropriate- up to the desk, he asked the woman standing there where Richard was.

"Floor eight, room D-21," she said sweetly.

With a quick 'thank you', he ran to the elevators.

* * *

><p>-Mount Justice-<p>

"Whoa. What just happened? Rob stopped breathing? Is he going to be okay? I've never seen Batman so worried, something really ba-"

"WALLY!" Artemis yelled over the Speedster's rambling. "None of us know what's going on with Robin right now."

Wally stopped, filled with defeat. Batman had left so fast, he didn't even have time to process that his best friend wasn't breathing well before the Dark Knight had left. Now, of course, the entire Team was left with tons of unanswered questions.

"We have a mission to accomplish. If we stay here and worry about Robin, no real work will be done. Our objective is to find who did this so that we can save our young friend. And that is exactly what we will do," their leader spoke up, determination on his face.

The other members nodded. Yes. They _would _help Robin. It was up to them. The hospitals and the Justice League were doing what they could to help the Boy Wonder, now it was their turn.

After gearing up and gathering their weapons, the teens ran to Miss Martian's bio-ship. The first place to go was Gotham City's jail. Secretly, Kid Flash was glad they weren't headed to Arkhum Asylum. Now _that _place was creepy.

When the Team arrived at the jail, they explained they had special clearance from the Dark Knight himself to talk to the men who had robbed the bank and was the reason for Robin's sickness.

"Right this way," a guard told them and headed down one of the many hallways.

'_Whoa… These guys are freaking me out!' _Kid Flash said through the telepathic link as he tried to avoid eye contact with some of the scariest looking people he had ever seen.

'_Yes,' _agreed Aqualad. _'They are quite… Different.'_

Miss Martian shook her head. _'These are the kind of people Robin deals with every week? I don't think I could last.'_

Arriving to a room labeled 'Interrogation Room' the teens filtered in. The man left briefly and then returned with the leader of the men who had robbed the shop.

Kid Flash's eyes narrowed when he saw the man. _This _was the man responsible. He was definitely going to get him to talk.

"Were you aware that your knives were poisoned when you attacked us last week?" Artemis asked, scowling.

The man chuckled. "Of course I know that. I mean, what, you think we carry around those weapons just for fun?" he laughed.

Superboy stepped forward. "Were you supposed to be targeting someone?"

Once again, he laughed. "What makes you think I'm just going to give you all of the answers?"

This time, Kid Flash beat everyone to the punch. "Tell us _now._ Who are you working for? No ordinary jewelry store thief brings a poisoned knife with him."

The man stopped laughing, noticing the heroes' serious stares. "Fine. You wanna know why we did that? We were paid big bucks to hurt your friend. The guy we work for stays in the shadows, though. Couldn't tell you his name. He has some sort of 'sidekick' that would watch us to make sure the work was done, or else we wouldn't get paid. I can tell you where he's hiding, though."

"Tell us," demanded Aqualad.

"Whenever we talked to him via the computer, his location said that he was in Paris."

"Do you know if he's still there?" Miss Martian asked.

"He doesn't move around lots. I'm sure you'll find him there. But watch out. You might get unlucky and meet his sidekick first. _That _would be bad."

The Team nodded. They had the information they needed for the moment. Now they just had to contact Batman and the rest of the Justice League.

As they were leaving the jail, Superboy asked, "What if they won't let us go to Paris? They'll probably send Flash or Superman or someone."

"No, they won't," Kid Flash said. "They _will _send us. We're Robin's teammates. _We _found the information, not them."

The others nodded. They _would _find who was behind all of this.

* * *

><p>-Paris, France-<p>

"Has the mission been completed?" a cold, strong, voice asked. The man's apprentice nodded, unable to see his master's face in the shadows.

"He has been poisoned. Now the bird's friends will either join us or watch him suffer- slowly and painfully, until he dies."

"I'm certain they'll make the right choice, won't they?"

"Yes, Master."

**OOOOOOH! Who could that be? You probably know who the Master is, but what about the Apprentice? AH! Mysteries! ;) Anyhoo, thanks so much for reading! Once again, sorry for the shorter chapter. I'll work on making them longer. Please review!**

**Reviews= MOTIVATION! Yeah! **

**-NerdGirl112 **


	6. Chapter 6

**Yeah... I swear I can explain! The end of the quarter for high school was this last week, and I had a LOT of homework and projects due. Curse school! I've been extremely distracted and I apologize. So... Guess what starts on the 28th of April? Young Justice: Invasion! :D I'm so excited! Season 2 couldn't have come soon enough! I'm obviously also excited for the last 4 episodes of Season One as well. Especially 'Performance'. Anyhoo... (And yes, I have restrained myself from watching the leaked episodes!) ;)**

**With the new Quarter starting, I'll be able to update much faster. And with all of the awesome YJ stuff that's happening, I'll be super motivated! Heheh... :) **

**And once again, thank you all for reading! I've never had so many reviews; I don't know what to do with myself! I would thank each individual person who reviewed, but...**

**Well, it would take forever! ANYHOO...**

**This also took a while to write because I wanted it to be a longer chapter. (I hope that will help make up for it being so late...)**

**Warning: Possibly a lot of Daddy-Bats. And of course there's hurt-Robin, but he's pretty much been hurt the entire story so far, so...**

* * *

><p>Bruce entered the sterile, white hospital room that held his son. Richard was out cold and lying on a bed that looked too big for him, a small tube winding around his face and under his nose to give him an extra supply of oxygen. His legs and part of his torso were hidden underneath the sheets. There were a few monitors surrounding him, and Bruce could hear the steady beat of the heart monitor.<p>

_'That's a good sign_,' he thought to himself.

The billionaire pulled a chair up right next to the bed, taking hold of Dick's hand. Richard looked so *young*. Bruce often forgot that he was only thirteen due to how advanced he was in everything. Maybe he was pushing him too far.

"I'm so sorry I wasn't there when this happened," he whispered. "I shouldn't have gone to the cave."

He smiled slightly, wiping some hair out of the boy's face. "You're teammates are really worried about you. They've proven to be a great group of friends. When you get feeling good enough, I might even let you tell them your secret identity."

'If he ever feels good enough,' Bruce thought sadly but quickly pushed the idea aside.

Richard stirred slightly before sighing in his sleep. Bruce gently ruffled his ebony hair.

"I'll be here when you wake up, I promise."

**(Switching to Dick's POV)**

Richard could vaguely remember hearing frantic voices and some sort of siren sound as he started regaining consciousness, but everything after that was blank. Moving his fingers he tested his mobility. Everything was a little sore and his head was throbbing slightly, but that was about it; nothing he couldn't handle. Now for the hard part- opening his eyes. His eyelids felt heavy as he slowly forced them open, the light causing him to blink rapidly. Then, he heard a strange sound. Was that... Snoring? With great effort, Dick finally managed to open his tired eyes, and found quite the sight in front of him. He was in the hospital, that was one thing he noticed, but he also saw that Bruce was asleep in a chair, his head resting on the bed, asleep.

Dick smiled. Of course the overprotective Bruce would be there when he woke up.

The raven-haired boy felt something on his face and reached to grab it.

"Don't even think about it."

Dick stopped, his fingers wrapped around the annoying tube that was underneath his nose. He looked up at Bruce, who was looking at him with a smirk on his face, but his eyes were still showed deep concern.

"Sorry," Dick mumbled. "I... I thought you were asleep."

Bruce chuckled. "Don't be. I'm the one who should be sorry. I shouldn't have left you."

Richard shook his head, wincing when it throbbed at the movement. "You didn't know what was going to happen."

He hated when his foster father blamed himself for things that were uncontrollable, and the man did it much too often.

Bruce sighed. "How are you feeling?" He asked.

"Like someone hit me in the head with a truck, and then stuck an annoying tube underneath my nose."

Bruce smiled at Dick's comment. "Well you'll have to keep that tube on until the doctor says it's okay to take it off. It is helping you breathe, after all," the billionaire's smile faded, and he looked down at the bed. "You're heart almost stopped once. I thought... I thought I wouldn't get there in time."

Dick looked down at his hands. His heart had almost stopped? He almost_ died_? The feeling of being close to death was something he was used to, but the Boy Wonder never knew that what he _thought _was such a small problem before had almost killed him. Looking back up at his foster father, Dick tried to hide how scared he was.

"Bruce," he said, realizing his voice was shaky, "What if you can't find an antidote?"

Bruce immediately stood up and hugged him. Dick was taken aback at first, but couldn't help but lean into Bruce's embrace.

Richard didn't realize he was actually crying until he felt the wet spot on Bruce's shoulder.

Bruce rubbed his back.

"Shhh. Don't worry son, we'll find a cure. I promise I won't let anything happen to you."

For a while the father and son just stayed like that, both comforting the other as much as they were trying to comfort themselves.

* * *

><p>"Ugh, I hate waiting!" A certain Speedster yelled, his cries not going unheard by his fellow teammates.<p>

"We haven't heard from Bats in forever, and the last time we talked to him, Rob wasn't even breathing right!"

The team of young heroes was scattered about the living room of the Cave, each one worried about Robin's current condition (although Wally was the most stressed out at the moment). Batman had actually looked _scared_ when he left. A worried Bat meant something bad was happening.

"Wally. We must trust Batman will call us when he feels it is the right time. Please, try and calm down," Aqualad tried to comfort the red head. Wally sighed and sat down on the floor, putting his elbows on his knees. He was so _worried_. Robin was his best friend. It pained him to hear that the thirteen year old acrobat was hurt or possibly even dying when he should be running around, laughing and being his hyper self. Now the Speedster was afraid he would never see the raven-haired boy like that ever again.

Wally's head shot up when he heard a beeping noise come from Kaldur's communicator. Hesitantly, Kaldur answered.

"This is Aqualad."

Wally strained to hear the conversation with who he hoped was Batman, but only picked up on a few words every so often. Occasionally Kaldur would glance up at the others.

Wally ran over to Conner. "Dude, do you know who he's talking to?"

Connor nodded. "It's Batman. He says that Robin's condition is stable, and he'll be returning home soon. But he won't be coming on any missions or for any training." The clone paused for a moment before continuing.

"Actually, he just told Kaldur he probably won't be coming to the Cave at all."

Disappointment spread through the Speedster like a wildfire. Not coming to visit at _all_? Was Rob's condition really that bad?

He watched as Kaldur nodded and said with a sad sigh, "Please contact us if there is anything we can do for him outside of our team duties. And yes, we have found some useful information."

With that, Kaldur ended the call and looked up.

"For those of you who didn't hear," he said, "Batman says Robin's condition is stable for now. However, he also mentioned that until an antidote is found..." the Atlantean paused, and Wally saw the sad expression on his face.

"Robin's condition will progressively become worse. This is the main reason why he will not be joining us in any activities."

Wally sunk back onto the floor. "We _have _to find a cure," he whispered. Zatanna, who had come after hearing about what had happened and had been quietly standing against the wall, walked over to Wally, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"We will."

Megan was quietly looking down at the floor.

"So," she said, "Batman said we can't even see him?"

Kaldur nodded. "He said that he may be able to come, but that's only if he absolutely has enough energy to be here. Also, we would have to take extreme caution around him."

"So is Bats going to come here so we can tell him the information we got?"

Kaldur shook his head. "Not today. He will not be leaving Robin's side anytime soon, I believe."

Wally's heart sank. He couldn't even see his best friend when he needed him the most. His friends gave him sorry looks (even Artemis) as he sat there feeling depressed.

_'I hope you come soon, Rob_.'

* * *

><p>After being monitored for another twenty-four hours to be sure his breathing was normal without any extra help from the oxygen, the doctor finally cleared Dick to go home, but he had to be extremely careful and was to call immediately if anything became worse. After a private talk with a few doctors, Bruce was able to have them also start looking for an antidote to the poison. Because the entire scenario had happened when Richard was Robin, very few people were told about his condition, and the ones who did know had to keep it quiet. Bruce didn't want the press finding out because it would just add more unnecessary stress on the situation, and he would have to make up some story about <em>how<em> Richard had been poisoned. So basically keeping it quiet was just really important.

"Finally," Dick said as he jumped out of bed. He stumbled a little when a wave of dizziness hit him. Bruce grabbed his arm before he could fall over.

"Take it easy Richard," Bruce said sternly, but with a smirk on his face.

"Sorry. I'm just ready to get out of here," he said. They made their way out of the building after clearing a few things with the doctor and the nurses. Richard was told he had to come back immediately if anything bad happened. The doctor also said if he was feeling sick (as in a cold or just feeling achey and tired) to treat it like any other time he had gotten sick, because there was honestly nothing the doctors could do about it. Bruce nodded, and the doctor gave him a quick, "good luck" before the billionaire followed his son out of the hospital.

As they drove back to the manor all that the acrobat could think of was his friends. As much as he told himself it wasn't true, there was still a good chance that he wouldn't make it. There was still a chance that an antidote wouldn't be found in time. Of course, Dick would never share these feelings with his father. Instead, he kept them to himself and hoped for the best.

"Dick," Bruce spoke up, jarring him out of his thoughts.

"Yes?"

Bruce hesitated for a moment. "Well... I was_ thinking _of taking you to Mount Justice with me while I talk with the rest of the team. After what happened last time, I don't want to just leave you alone. But I want to make sure you're feeling up to it."

The Boy Wonder looked down at his lap. If he went to the cave and saw his friends, he was afraid he'd look weak. If he stayed behind, he wouldn't be with his friends, and he also would still look weak. Neither of the choices were great, but he _did_ want to see his friends. Especially if he only had a little amount of time left to live...

But he wouldn't think that way.

"Richard, I know what you're thinking. You think that if you go, you'll look weak in front of your friends," Bruce stated. Dick could only nod. Of course the World's Greatest Detective would figure him out.

"You're the _Boy Wonder_. What you are able to accomplish at your age and what you've been through in Gotham makes your teammates see you as one of the strongest people they've ever met. To me, you really are the strongest person I've ever met. You should never feel ashamed when something like this happens."

Dick looked up at his father. He was right (well, he was usually always right).

"Okay. I- I guess I'll go," he said with a slight smile.

* * *

><p>The Young Justice Team (minus Robin) was all lounging on chairs watching TV. Well, to be honest, no one was really paying attention. All of their thoughts were instead on a certain little bird.<p>

Wally was the most upset. All the Speedster could think about was getting an antidote for the Boy Wonder before it was too late.

Suddenly, Batman's voice came over the intercom.

"Team. Meet on the training floor."

The teens gave each other surprised looks, and then headed towards the training room.

When they got there, a hologram with Batman was up. He was wearing his usual 'serious face'.

"I'm headed to the Cave so that you can tell me what information you have gathered."

Wally stared at the ground, finding it much more interesting.

"Robin is coming with me."

This caught the Speedster's attention.

"Wait- Rob's coming? Sweet!" He practically yelled.

The others smiled. Kaldur said, "We are glad he feels well enough to come."

The Dark Knight just nodded, and then the screen vanished.

"Well this is great! I wasn't expecting Robin to come. Maybe I should bake some cookies!" Megan smiled at the Team before she flew off towards the kitchen.

Wally's face suddenly lit up when he remembered he had brought a brand new video game, and sped off to set it up.

Superboy shrugged and walked off towards Wally.

A crashing sound came from the kitchen. "Looks like Megan might need some help," Artemis said to Kaldur before running off towards the kitchen. Now the Atlantean was alone. Something told him that when Robin came today, it would be entirely different than any other day when the Team hung out.

'_Recognized Batman: 02 Robin: B-01.'_

The Dynamic Duo walked in, but Robin walked stiffly as though his entire body ached. With a smirk and a wave to Kaldur, he walked/limped off towards his room while the Dark Knight just stayed.

"I need to talk to all of you," he said.

Once everyone was gathered once again on the training room floor, Batman began his 'speech'.

"I needed to talk you before Robin returns."

The young heroes listened closely, gathering around Batman.

"For you to be able to have a better understanding of Robin's condition, I wanted to... Explain it to you in the best way that I can," he paused.

"Cancer is the medical condition that is most similar to what Robin has. From what I have seen so far, there are many things in common. Some days he feels terrible, and some days he feels okay. There will probably be days where he's incredibly sick. Unfortunately there is nothing that will help him to get better unless we find an antidote. This is why I need you to tell me everything you learned from your visit to the prison."

Kaldur told most of the story; the others jumping in to say something occasionally.

Batman stayed expressionless the whole time. When the story was finished, the Team looked at him with eager faces, hoping some kind of clue as to who did this had been found within their information.

"I need to go to Paris, but Robin will have to stay here. Can I trust you to watch over him while I'm gone?"

The teens nodded.

"There is a high risk that he could get sick, so if he does, treat it like you would anytime a person gets sick. Robin will most likely be tired a majority of the time, so let him rest. However, if anything serious happens- like he starts passing out or gets a high fever- contact the League and me immediately. And whatever you do, do_ not_ let him train. The Team will obviously not be assigned on any mission while I'm away, so don't even think about sneaking off on one. Do you all understand?"

The Team nodded their heads, all of them praying that Batman would find villain behind all of this in time to save their friend.

* * *

><p>Robin quietly changed into his civvies, replacing his domino mask with his sunglasses. For a minute the Boy wonder sat down on his bed, trying to ignore the how every muscle was sore and screamed in protest each time he moved, like he had just been through a serious work-out.<p>

To be honest, he was nervous. He wondered about what kind of things he would have to go through before an antidote was found. Would he catch a cold? What if he became so weak he'd have to stay in bed all of the time? The possibilities were endless, but he didn't want to think about it too much. What he really didn't want was anyone worrying too much over him. He was tough; Robin could handle being poisoned.

But even the Boy Wonder wasn't invincible.

Who was he kidding? Without an antidote, he would die. That was the plain truth.

With a sigh, Robin stood up and looked at himself in the mirror in his bathroom. He looked like himself, just a little more pale. He took off his sunglasses for a moment, examining his eyes. They were still that crazy blue, but they looked tired. There were even faint, dark circles underneath them. Robin slipped the glasses back on. This was going to be one of the hardest trials he would face, but he would fight until the end. He walked to the door which slid open and went out into the hall. Time to say hi to his friends.

When Robin walked out into the training area, his teammates were gathered around Batman. He decided it best to stay hidden until Bats gave him the 'all clear' to come out.

_'He must be talking to them about my... condition_,' the Boy Wonder thought to himself.

Batman then quickly glanced in his direction without any of the team noticing. That was his cue.

Slowly but surely he made his way out onto the floor. The Boy Wonder tried his best to hide his pain despite how badly his muscles ached in protest.

'_Dang_,' he thought_. 'If this is just the beginning of the pain... I don't even want to know what's yet to come.'_

Conner was the first to notice Robin walking towards them (with his super-hearing and all).

The clone quickly turned around, looking at Robin with a slightly suspicious yet worried expression.

_'Great. He already knows I don't feel good..._'

Wally looked over next. "Rob!" He shouted as he ran over to Robin.

Having a fifteen year old run into you at lightning fast speeds was nothing fun, especially since he was already sore, so Robin stopped the Speedster before he could crash into him.

"Wally, wait!" Wally stumbled and fell to avoid hitting the Boy Wonder.

Robin chuckled nervously. "Heheh," he said, "Sorry to scare you. I'm just really sore right now. It's probably best not to be run into by someone who has super speed." To make sure no one began worrying too much, Robin smirked at his teammates.

"How goes it?" He asked. His friends gathered around him, greeting him and asking how he was feeling with warm smiles.

"As of right now, I'm pretty whelmed," Robin answered. It was the plain truth. As much as he didn't feel good, he was as happy as ever to be with his friends.

While in the midst of talking to his friends Robin saw Batman pull Kaldur aside and said, "Contact me immediately if anything goes wrong with him."

After that the Dark Knight was ready to leave. He gave Robin a 'look/glare' that said, 'Take it easy or else you'll be in trouble when I get back.' Robin nodded. He'd rather not have to face the wrath of the Bat.

The Team decided watching a movie and playing video games would be "appropriate for the situation" as Wally had put it. While most of the teens were paying attention to the movie, Robin leaned over to Kaldur.

"Is Batman investigating the information you gave him?" He whispered to their leader.

Kaldur looked a little shocked. "How did you find out?"

Robin smirked at him. It seemed his teammates occasionally forgot he was a detective.

"Of course I knew. Batman was with me practically the entire time, so he couldn't do the investigating. I figured he would let you guys handle it. Thanks, by the way," he added on.

The Atlantean smiled after another moment of shock. "You're welcome. And yes, Batman is looking for someone that hopefully will help us find an antidote."

Robin began fiddling with his hands at the mention of the antidote. For a few moments he had actually forgotten that his life was slowly being sucked away... but now the memory was back.

Kaldur must have noticed how uncomfortable the Boy Wonder was talking about it, so he tried changing the subject. "Batman told me you would figure out what he was doing fairly quickly," he said with a slight smile.

Robin couldn't help but grin. "I am the protégé of the World's Greatest Detective after all."

The young heroes partied for quite a while, but after a few hours (he was surprised he had managed to last _that_ long) Robin's eyelids grew extremely heavy. He was disappointed. The others were still wide awake, laughing and throwing food and pillows at each other, yet he felt like he had just run a marathon.

_'Stupid poison_,' he thought to himself. As hard as Robin fought to stay awake, exhaustion finally won and he closed his eyes, and he fell asleep in the armchair he had been sitting on.

* * *

><p>Wally dodged a handful of M&amp;M's (thrown by a certain blonde archer) before turning to throw a pillow at the Boy Wonder. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw his best friend was out cold.<p>

"Guys, be quiet," he said just loud enough for the others to hear.

Artemis turned towards him, a scowl on her face. "Why?" She demanded.

The Speedster motioned his head towards the sleeping Robin.

"Oh," she whispered. "Whoa. I didn't even realize he had fallen asleep."

"It must be the poison," Wally said. "It's wearing him out."

For a moment the Team sat in silence. They were very worried about their little bird, but didn't say it out loud; for Robin's sake. The Speedster of the group broke the awkward silence.

"We need to figure this out before he runs out of time."

The others nodded with fierce determination. "We will. As soon as Batman comes back, we're helping." Conner said.

"And hopefully Batman will find out who is behind this," added Kaldur. "Until he does, we will not let anything happened to our young friend."

Wally yawned. "Well... It _is_ after midnight. I think I'll go to bed, but first... What should we do about Rob? Do you think we should take him to his room?"

Conner walked over to Robin.

"Robin?" He asked. The raven haired boy didn't even budge, but just snored lightly.

"Well, he's not waking up that easily. I can carry him to his room," the clone said. Kaldur nodded. "Alright. It is probably best that we do take him to his room."

Conner gingerly slid his arms under Robin's shoulders and knees. Wally watched somewhat amused. Who knew the Boy of Steel could be so _gentle_?

The Boy Wonder moved slightly, but relaxed and didn't wake up. Conner began walking down the hall towards Robin's room, Megan following closely behind him.

"This kid is unnaturally light," Conner muttered.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing Megan. I was just saying Robin isn't heavy at all. And I don't think it's because I have super-strength."

The Martian girl sighed. "The poison has probably made him lose weight..."

The couple made their way inside Robin's room and Conner gently set him down on the bed.

"It'll be interesting to see what happens when he wakes up," the clone smirked.

Megan nodded, and the two walked out and headed towards their rooms after saying goodnight to each other.

* * *

><p>The city of Paris, France was a charming place to say the least. Every building was lit up although it was past three in the morning, and the people were still bustling about.<p>

Of course, the Dark Knight wasn't here for the scenery. No, he was there for something much more valuable and important- an antidote that would save Robin's life.

An antidote that would save his _son's _life.

However, things weren't just that easy. He had to find the person behind all of this first, and when he did find him; he would most definitely beat the living daylight out of him.

The Dark Knight jumped across buildings looking for anything that seemed suspicious. Because he only knew the location of this villain, he didn't really have too much to work off of.

However, Batman _did_ remember what the knives looked like that the men had to rob the store with.

Ra's Al Ghul.

Now he just needed to find him, but that was much easier said than done.

Batman suddenly picked up on two men walking down an alley wearing outfits that covered their entire bodies, including their faces.

_That_ wasn't something you see every day in Paris.

He followed them for a while, wondering if these men were just a waste of time when the strangest thing happened. They stepped into another smaller alleyway. There was a tall trash can at the very end of the alley, and one of the men pushed something on the trash can and it moved, revealing a glass door. Behind the glass was a room just big enough to fit one person into it. One of the men stepped inside. A light came on and scanned him head to toe. As soon as it was done the man began sinking down underneath the ground. It was an elevator. The second man waited for the odd elevator to return, and the Dark Knight saw this as a perfect time to intervene. Using his grappling hook he jumped off of the roof, landing silently behind the man.

Batman cleared his throat and the man turned around, only to meet Batman's fist and be knocked unconscious. He went to pick the guy up when he noticed a strange bag-looking item strapped to the man's shoulder. Batman cautiously opened it, and what he saw surprised him.

It was the exact same kind of knife Robin had been poisoned with. He pulled it out of the bag all the way, and he immediately noticed a strange substance on the blade of the knife. This one was poisoned as well.

By now the elevator had returned, and Batman _knew _he had to go. He picked up the man and walked into the small elevator. The scanning device scanned the man and it thankfully worked, and the Dark Knight began his descent to find the true villain behind his son being poisoned.


	7. Chapter 7a

**Heya!**

**I'm so sorry for how long this took. **

**Towards the end of the school year I was swamped with work! And then I got a job, and then I finished my Sophomore year of school, and then soccer practice started up again. I really do apologize!**

**Thank you SO much for all of the reviews and for sticking with this story despite my terrible updating! ;)**

***PLEASE READ THIS NOTE***

**Due to the lack of time I've had to work on this, this chapter is sort of acting as a preview for the next, which is why it's so short. The rest will be up soon, I just felt like you deserved at least a short chapter. **

**Here we go!**

OoOoOoOooOoOoOooOoOooOoo

Wally _had_ been sleeping peacefully before he was abruptly awoken by someone screaming. It wasn't a little whimper, nor just a small yell. No, it was a horrifying, loud, full on _scream_. The Speedster was out of bed before he could even really open his eyes; running straight to Robin's room. It sounded like his best friend was having a nightmare. He'd had them before around Wally, but the Speedster never got used to them. He stopped outside of Robin's room desperately trying to open the locked door to no avail. Suddenly there was a loud thump and silence. Wally's eyes widened with fear.

"Rob? Rob!"

By now the others were running towards the door, Kaldur and Conner in the lead.

"What has happened?" Kaldur asked.

"I don't know!" Wally shouted. "He started screaming and I couldn't open the door and then I heard a loud noise and he just stopped!" The Speedster had to pause to take a breath. "The thing is, his door is locked, and I can't freaking get it open!"

The scowl on Conner's face deepened, and he quickly kicked in the door. The young heroes filed into the room to find their small friend on the floor lying on his side next to his bed. Wally ran over to him, gently turning him over. Robin was crying silently, but due to his mask, Wally couldn't tell if he was even awake or not.

"Rob?"

The Boy Wonder stirred. _'Looks like he was asleep..._' Wally thought to himself.

Robin groaned and sat up (with some help from Wally). The Boy Wonder wiped at his face; his expression turned to shock when he realized he had been crying.

"Whoa," Robin whispered, "what happened?"

Wally gave an emotionless laugh. "You don't remember anything, huh?" He became a little more serious, his eyes looking at the floor. "You were having a nightmare."

Robin's eyes widened at the thought of possibly giving away any information about his identity, but Wally reassured him.

"Don't worry, you didn't say anything. Just gave us a scare, that's all."

Robin nodded, sighing in relief. "Sorry bout' that, guys. I can't even remember anything or why I was screaming at all... I don't even remember falling out of bed," the Boy Wonder's gazed dropped to the floor. Wally saw that he was slightly uncomfortable about something.

"Hey, do you guys mind if I talk to Rob alone for a minute?" Robin gave the Speedster a confused look, but he just ignored it. Kaldur nodded, putting a reassuring hand on Robin's shoulder, and one by one the others filed out of the room.

As soon as they were alone Wally looked at Robin seriously.

"I can tell there's something else that's wrong. You can tell me, you know."

The Boy Wonder hesitated for a moment, but eventually gave in.

"Well I wasn't lying about not remembering anything about the dream," he started, "but something did happen." Wally urged him to go on.

"Well... Around two this morning I felt really sick... And I kind of threw up." Robin quickly continued when he saw he was about to get yelled at. "But don't worry! I don't feel nauseous anymore."

Wally just stared in disbelief at his best friend. Really? He got sick and didn't say anything? It was really predictable for the Boy Wonder to do such a thing, but he was still mad.

"Dude! You should've told me! Don't you remember? There's *poison* in you. You can't keep these things from me because I'm your best friend and me and the rest of the Team are seriously worried and scared about what might happen to you!"

Robin sat in shock as he tried to process his friend's sudden outburst. Wally was really that worried? Were his teammates really that worried? Obviously it was true, he just wished it wasn't. All this time he was telling himself he didn't want his Team to treat him like a baby, but they weren't. They were just concerned and afraid of losing someone they loved.

Just like a family would be.

Tears welled up in the Boy Wonder's eyes despite his efforts to not cry. Wally was there in a millisecond, hugging his best friend.

"I'm sorry Wally, I am," The ebony cried into Wally's shoulder. "Honestly, I'm sc- scared about what will happen but I didn't want you guys to think I was weak. I'm so sorry I kept it hidden fr- from you..." he cried. Wally hugged him tighter. He wouldn't let anything happen to his best friend.

"Dickie," he said. Robin looked up at the sound of his real name; tears still streaming down his face.

"You have every right to be scared. But you know that we- the Team and the Justice League- we would never think of you as 'weak'," Wally said.

Robin nodded, wiping the tears off of his face. "M' sorry."

Wally shook his head. "There's no reason to be sorry. I'm going to go out and let the Team know you're alright. Come out when you're ready." His eyes flashed (no pun intended) up to the clock next to Robin's bed.

"Well, it's already eight in the morning, so no point in going back to bed. We have training with Black Canary at eight-thirty, anyways," the Speedster added so Robin wouldn't feel guilty. With a quick pat on Robin's back, Wally left.

Robin picked himself off of the floor and headed to the bathroom. Looking at himself in the mirror was somewhat frightening- he was even paler than before and when he removed his mask, red, puffy eyes were revealed due to his lack of sleep and because of the crying. There were dark circles around them too, almost like someone had given him two black eyes. His body ached worse than ever before; even worse than when he had had a long mission or when Batman had him training for hours. He walked out of the bathroom and changed into some sweat pants and a white t-shirt, and that's when he realized how cold he was.

'_Did someone turn the air on? Geez, it feels like this place has been freeze-blasted or something..._' he thought to himself as he grabbed an oversized sweatshirt and walked out of his room. His friends were waiting on the training room floor, waiting for Black Canary. Robin gave them encouraging smiles when they looked at him with worry.

"Are you alright?" Artemis asked.

They Boy Wonder laughed. "Don't worry bout' me. I'm fine."

Black Canary walked in and he took a seat to the side of the glowing floor; slipping on his sweatshirt when the chills refused to leave. He watched Wally and Kaldur step onto the floor first. Quite honestly, he was grateful he wasn't allowed to train. His body ached so badly, he knew training would have made it worse.

"Alright Kaldur and Wally," Canary said. "No powers-" she gave Wally the 'look'- "Just sparring. You may begin."

The match started out just like any typical sparring match where Wally was fighting- the reckless Speedster ran ahead at Kaldur at an average speed, and the Atlantean easily saw it coming. Kaldur dodged Wally's first punch, spun around and tripped the red head in less than three seconds.

Artemis' laughter could be heard by everyone as the floor announced Wally had failed.

"Keep going!" Black Canary said.

Robin smirked from the sidelines as Wally angrily got up and got back into a fighting stance. The Speedster glared at the Boy Wonder, and he just laughed.

Wally gained the upper hand the second round and gave a quick attack of hits to Kaldur's face. Kaldur blocked every one except the last and fumbled backwards. Wally ran full speed (without using his powers) back towards the Atlantean without a second thought.

Robin could tell what was about to happen- Kaldur would use Wally's momentum to thrown him over his shoulder. He almost laughed at the thought of Wally flying through the air, but a yell brought him back to reality. He looked up to see Wally being thrown over Kaldur's shoulder-

-directly at him.

He would normally roll out of the way, but this wasn't a 'normal' situation. Robin's reflexes were slow due to being sick and because of his lack of sleep, and Wally was practically a human cannonball heading towards him. His muscles randomly tensed up, and his body felt like it weighed a million pounds. Things went in slow motion- he could see each of his friends' shocked expressions and wondered what _his _face looked at the moment...

Time sped up as Wally painfully crashed right into the Boy Wonder. Robin heard something snap- a loud, disgusting sound- as he and Wally rolled a few feet away from the training floor.

"Robin!" He heard Artemis and M'gann scream as his friends ran over to assess the damage. Robin's entire body was pulsing with pain; his body aching like he had never felt before. He doubled over on the floor, his right hand clenching his left hand in pain. Wally was by his side in an instant.

"Rob! Man, I'm so sorry! Did I hurt you?" The Speedster said, worried. Honestly, Robin was in too much pain to answer. He was practically rolled up in a ball on the floor trying not to cry for the second time that morning.

He had never felt pain like this before- plenty of people/aliens/strange creatures had done worse damage than someone simply knocking him over, yet this hurt _so much worse_. It was like someone had simultaneously torn every muscle in his body and then broke his hand. Oh, and his hand- Robin was positive he'd broken it, but he'd never had a bone break so _easily_.

Black Canary was suddenly by his side. "Robin? What's wrong?"

The Boy Wonder managed to whimper out, "M'okay..."

Canary wouldn't have it. "No you're not. This obviously has something to do with the poison. Let's get you to the infirmary. Can you walk?"

Robin attempted to stand but didn't even manage to stand up straight before the pain came back and he went crashing to the floor. Thankfully, Wally caught him and scooped him up bridal-style. He didn't object- he was in too much pain.

"I got him. Let's go," Wally said grimly and headed towards the infirmary.

**Yeah, once again I'm so sorry for the short chapter! I hope it was enough for right now… I'll get the second part out as soon as I can.**

**P.S- Don't you love how I beat up Robin even though this is extremely short? Gah I'm so evil… ;)**


	8. Chapter 7b

**Hey again! :D Here's the second part to Chapter 7. **

**Just a warning, it is a little darker than any of the other chapters, just thought I'd let you know**

***ROY IS NOT A CLONE IN MY STORY!* Heheh! ;)**

**I may change the rating to 'T' because it gets a little more... violent from here. Anyhoo thanks so much for all of the reviews, favorites, and alerts! I hope you enjoy the chapter! :)**

***For those who are waiting for an update to my other story, 'Heavy On the 'Dis'', it's almost complete. :) (And yes, there was another author who used the exact same title, so hopefully no one gets confused...)**

**Here's a disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice and never will. If I did, there would never be a break and the five year jump would not have been so sudden. There.**

* * *

><p>Batman only had one goal in mind as he traveled deeper underground-<p>

Save his son.

Save him because there was _no way_ he could move on without him. In the beginning he had had his doubts, but the little acrobat had managed to sneak into his heart; something that so many people had tried to do and failed at in his life, and yet a nine year old Dick Grayson had.

The Dark Knight ran out of the elevator as soon as it stopped and quickly found a hiding spot behind some metal boxes. There were a few people-well, more like thugs- bustling about. The room looked like a warehouse or a factory, with metal beams stretching across the tall ceiling and machines and boxes everywhere. Batman pulled out his grappling hook and shot it towards the large metal beams to get a better view of what exactly was going on. He landed on the beam without making a sound and looked down towards the machines, slightly confused. There was nothing being made in them.

Batman cautiously walked along the beam when he heard an all too familiar voice:

"By now the poison should be taking an even greater effect on the Boy Wonder's weakening body. The young heroes- perhaps even the Justice League- will be forced to come to_ us_."

It was Ra's Al Ghul. A man-if you could really even call him that- that practically knew everything about Bruce and Richard. And now he had Robin's life in his hands.

Batman carefully moved more into the shadows when Ra's Al Ghul stepped out into the light of the room

"Perhaps we even got lucky enough to have the Dark Knight pay us a visit in person," the villain said before smirking. "Isn't that right, Batman?"

The Dark Knight's eyes slightly widened in shock. He knew he was here the entire time. Ra's looked up to the exact spot where he was perched on the metal beams.

_'Great._'

* * *

><p>Robin slipped in and out of consciousness as his teammates and Black Canary ran about inside the infirmary, the older hero calling out orders of what she needed. The Boy Wonder had (thankfully) been given some morphine to help ease the pain, but not too much in case it made his condition worse.<p>

"Robin? Can you hear me?" he heard Dinah ask.

He gave a slight nod and winced in pain when he felt his broken hand being moved.

"We're going to x-ray your hand. Hold on just a minute and stay as still as you can."

Robin closed his eyes and tried to relax as he heard the machine buzz.

'What in the world is happening to me?' He thought. There was a rush of air and his best friend was at his side, carefully picking him up. The Speedster set him down on a hospital bed while Black Canary prepped some equipment.

"I'm so sorry, Rob. I swear I didn't mean to run into you," Wally said as he stood next to the bed.

Robin shook his head. "Not your fault," he said slowly, his eyes still closed.

"Well, Robin," Dinah said. "Your wrist is broken. It obviously has something to do with the poison. No one- _especially_ you- would have broken a bone from being run into like that. I'm sorry, but I'm afraid you'll have to wear a cast."

Robin turned to Wally and gave the best smile he could through all of the pain. "See Walls? It was the poison, not you." The Boy Wonder hissed in pain when his body started aching again as fierce as it had before he had been given the morphine.

Black Canary looked at Robin with a worried/concerned expression.

"I know you're already in a lot of pain, so is it alright if I put you to sleep while I put your cast on?"

Robin nodded, his eyes shut tight in pain. "It'd be preferred, actually." The elder hero nodded and injected a clear liquid into the I.V. drip in Robin's right hand. Within seconds his eyelids became heavy and he closed his eyes, finally relaxing.

* * *

><p>All action in the room came to a stop. Several men- dressed just like the two men who Batman had knocked unconscious- looked around, trying to find the Caped Crusader. Batman tensed up when he heard his name being called out, but sighed and slowly made his descent to the floor below using his grappling hook.<p>

"Now now Batman," Ra's almost laughed. "You really think that I wouldn't be expecting you?"

The Dark Knight landed silently on the floor and with a mental sigh, walked out into the light, the shadows no longer hiding him. Ra's watched him with a smirk on his face, his eyebrows raised in amusement.

"It's good to see you, Batman. It's been a while."

The Dark Knight glared back. This was no time for a friendly chat- not when this man held the key to his son's survival in his hands.

"What do you want?" He asked.

"Your cooperation, of course," the villain said. "I want to hear more about this little team that some of the others have been talking about. Isn't little Robin on this said team?"

Batman didn't answer. Ra's was toying with him. He needed to get the antidote and get out.

"Give me the antidote, Ra's."

The man smiled evilly. "Oh come on, Batman. Why would I ever give it to you that easily? You have to _prove_ that you deserve to receive it."

At that moment a group of 10 men dressed in all black dropped down and surrounded the Dark Knight. They all held a variety of different weapons, from swords to shuriken to bo staffs. Batman was positive he could take them- but there was something else going on, and he needed to figure it out before it was too late.

* * *

><p>Darkness.<p>

An all too familiar feeling to the Boy Wonder- it lingered in Gotham's streets, it could be found in every villain, and most of all it haunted Robin's dreams- well, filled his nightmares- almost every night. Even despite the fact he was given a sedative, he was still being granted with the oh-so-grateful privilege of having one at the moment.

It was the same nightmare, as usual. The same circus tent, the same audience, the same thing _over _and _over_ again. The same whoosh of air that he felt against his skin.

The exact same screams and the terrible snapping sounds that followed after.

Robin began running to his parents' sides, but when he got there it was not what he expected.

Instead of his parents broken, bleeding bodies, it was Bruce's. His cowl was off, but the rest of his Batman uniform was still on. His eyes were open but remained un-blinking, and Robin felt his eyes well up with tears. His knees gave out from underneath him, and he couldn't stop shaking. Because in all of his life he had never had a dream exactly like this one. Sure he had nightmares about Batman being seriously injured, but never had his parents' deaths and Batman 'dying' ever mixed before.

It was_ truly_ terrifying.

Robin took small, slow steps towards the man he had known as his father for the past four years. Everything around him began to fade into black, the only light coming from the spotlight that shone over Bruce's body. Now he was just inches from his foster father's body when something in his hand caught his eye. Robin kneeled next to the man's hand and with much reluctance, reached down and took the shining object out of his hand. It was... a syringe?

With a closer look, Robin realized exactly what it was.

In the syringe was the antidote to the poison that was currently coursing through his body. Bruce had _died_ getting it for him? No... That couldn't be possible! He was Batman! He couldn't die. Now he was hyperventilating. Bruce died trying to save him.

Robin fell to his knees, tears streaming down his face. He felt so _guilty_. It was his fault his father was dead; his fault for not telling anyone and getting Bruce killed... By now he was sobbing, his breath hitching and chest heaving. He hugged Bruce's body close.

"No! This can't be happening! It's my fault," he sobbed into the Batman uniform. Suddenly the darkness closed in on father and son until they were completely engulfed in it; everything going black.

The Boy Wonder woke with a jolt, tears still streaming down his face. His body ached at the sudden movement and he tried to calm his sobbing fit. Seemingly out of nowhere a pair of muscular arms wrapped around his shaking frame. Startled, he looked up to find the friend he had considered as an older 'brother' all of his life looking at him with worried eyes. Roy.

Robin hugged him tighter; crying even harder.

"Shh, it's okay Dickie. Were you having a nightmare?" Robin nodded.

"I-it was a b-bad one," he sniffed.

Roy hugged him tighter. "Want to talk about it?"

The Boy Wonder wiped his tears with his hand and looked down at his lap. The nightmare felt more like some sort of vision to him than anything.

"I have to go, Roy."

The red archer stared at him, confusion obvious on his face. "What do you mean?"

Robin looked up at him with a serious expression. "I need to be with Batman. Something bad will happen to him if I'm not there."

"Dick," Roy sighed. "You're in no condition to be fighting or even be outside of the cave, really. I mean, you have a broken hand and we don't know what could happe-"

"Roy, please."

Roy stopped his rambling to look down at Robin, who had taken his sunglasses off and was looking at the archer with those bright, baby blue eyes. But instead of their usual happy shine, there was a fierce, pleading look. There was no way he was going to back down on this.

Suddenly there was a soft knock at the door. Robin quickly put his sunglasses back on and said, "Uh, come in."

Wally peeked his head in, a huge grin on his face at seeing his best friend awake and at the sight of Roy, who he also considered as a big brother. Robin smiled and pulled the sunglasses back off.

"Rob, you're awake! Roy, what are you doing here?" The Speedster ran in and nearly tackled Roy into a hug.

"Hey, Walls. Just wanted to be here for my little brothers."

Wally turned to Robin. "How ya' feeling?"

The Boy Wonder sighed. Now he'd have to tell Wally too...

"Well... I'm certainly not feeling the aster. I had a nightmare... But I feel like it was more like a vision or something."

Concerned green eyes looked at him. "And what happened?"

Roy pulled up two chairs next to the hospital bed, gesturing for Wally to sit down. Once the Speedster was comfortable, Roy said, "He wants to go find Bats."

Wally's face turned to shock. "Dude! You think you can fight with Batman in your condition?"

"I know, I know. That's what Roy said. But guys, you have to believe me. My gut is telling me I _have to_ _go_. Batman _needs_ me. _Bruce_ needs me. I don't know how, or why, but I need to be there or something bad will happen!" Robin had started yelling without even realizing it. He was glaring at his two best friends with enough ferocity to match Batman. His gaze softened and he tried not to let tears fall from his eyes.

"Please. You're my best friends. You have to believe me on this one."

The two red-heads looked at each other, seemingly having a silent conversation.

Roy sighed. "We can tell that you're not going to back down on this one. We believe you, and we'll let you go, on one condition-"

"We're coming with you," Wally finished. Robin was going to argue- he didn't want Wally and Roy to get hurt-but he knew he would need them.

The Boy Wonder smiled. "Okay. Thank you, so, so, much."

Roy and Wally stood and enveloped him in a brotherly group hug. Whoever did this to their little bro was going to get it.

* * *

><p><strong>OHMYGOODNESS FLUFF IS FLOATING IN THE AIR.<strong>

**To be honest, I've never really written anything that has a Roy, Wally, and Dick acting-like-brothers/best-friends scene in any of my stories! I really enjoyed it. :D**

**Yeah… So now Robin is going to help Bats. Good thing? Bad thing? We'll just have to wait and see, huh?**

**Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed the second part to Ch. 7! :)**


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